Hello Again Friends- Next Batch of Five Films ((some spoilers))
I know it seems bizarre that I am doing this in the middle of the night, but I decided tomorrow to go and spend the weekend with Yearrrgsworth and his family. Whether his grandmother passes or not, he/they might need me and that's the only co-writer I am close enough to visit. So I first wanted to do my middle set overnight for you darlings:
The other Ten Films I saw this month can be split evenly into two categories: Documentaries on real people.. Or.. Docu-Drama's ABOUT real people yet played by actors. For the layman, one is filled with pictures and interviews and one is filled with recreations of the 'real people' and telling a story from some kind of Hindsight. I decided to give you a break on documentaries and focus this time on the five docudramas I have recently seen.
For starters, without knowing my facts, I never liked what I DID know of the man. Some of my reasons were spot on, and sometimes I was wrong. The reason I decided to give it a whorl with Leo playing Mr. Hoover is I am a big Howard Hughes fan and he didn't butcher Scorsese's film 'The Aviator'. I felt it was accurate while still telling people what this amazing man did without lying about his faults. Well, that is what Clint Eastwood did here with 'J. Edgar' (am I the only one that thinks Mr. Eastwood is a much better director than actor?!)
One thing I particularly liked was how Eastwood decided to depict Hoover in his lifelong relationship with Clyde Tolson. We know the facts. Tolson was Hoover's number two from the 20s until they died (very close together) in the mid-70s. We know they always ate their lunches and dinners together at various restaurants and clubs in 'their' special booths. We know for nearly 50 years, they took every holiday together, looking very 'nuzzled' and 'cozy' in the vacation snaps that -do- survive. We know various staff and waiters saw them canoodling, hand-holding, and that in their INNER circle, close friends like Ethel Merman would invite them BOTH to teas or parties and as a couple, they would answer and accept or decline, signing the card together and sending joint-gifts.
Every clue tells us that Hoover was a man of his time and thus a self-hating homosexual. (Thanks in part to his bigoted mother, played to precision by classy Dame Judi Dench...I mean, really, can that woman do any wrong?!) That on the one hand he went after gays and lesbians as badly as he went after Communists yet on the other hand, when he died, the first call his house-keeper made was to Clyde Tolson. When he came and saw him did he also grab all their love notes or photographs?? We know the second call was to his personal secretary, played well by a brunette Naomi Watts. Normally, I am not a fan of hers, but the darker hair made me see just Hoover's lifelong private secretary, Helen Gandy, I didn't register it as played by Naomi Watts until the credits!) who in the middle of the night, quietly did as Hoover asked her to do if something happened to him....DESTROY all personal files, all trace of what he had on the Presidents and himself. So hours later when the news hit Nixon, he sent his men to "GET THOSE COCKSUCKER'S FILES" and yet, the cubbard was bare. HA HA HA!!!! I loved how even in death, his two most trusted people protected his image. We can talk about things he may have done or been, but we can't PROVE it. That was his point.
Was he gay?! I think he was a self loathing homosexual that loved Clyde Tolson anyway and kept him close for many years. It was a sad time when you could have meals and cigars twice a day every day with the person you love but couldn't kiss him and tell him how much you need and love him. However, I did find one thing that may put this all to bed. A letter, more of a note really that Hoover wrote to Clyde Tolson: “Words are mere man-given symbols for thoughts and feelings, and they are grossly insufficient to express the thoughts in my mind and the feelings in my heart that I have for you, I hope I will always have you beside me.” 1943
I have a few things I wish to tell you about this film. It is BEAUTIFUL and so visually stunning sometimes that I rewound it to see certain things again. It takes place in the Elizabethan era (with young Elizabeth played by Joely Richardson and the older Elizabeth played by her mother, Vanessa Redgrave). It is on who wrote Shakespeare's work. Sounds stupid and like a question that answers itself. Yet it's not.
If you are like me and have studied this topic endlessly you will be horrified by the historical inaccuracies within this other-wise beautiful film. In fact, I was advised by my best mates not even to watch it because of how serious I am with my Tudor and Elizabethan history. So if you are on the same par with me, you CAN still enjoy this STUNNING and at times THRILLING film. Just check your head and facts at the door and don't see it with someone that doesn't know much about it because you will be tempted to say 'Oh, that's wrong... oh, but that's right' for two whole hours!!.
If you don't know much about this period in History, you can still enjoy it too. Just understand that 1/3 is right, 1/3 is wrong, and 1/3 has been up for debate for 400 years. It's not a film you can see and suddenly think you know some good and true history. Still, it is a great film other than playing with the facts and one that I am sure people will be arguing about for ages and when the arguments over the film stop, the arguments about who indeed wrote Shakespeare's body of work will resume. Like with religion, we can never truly know.
First off, I am not a huge fan of them. Okay, I wasn't a fan at all and knew precious little. I knew Joan Jett and Lita Ford were in a 70s all girl, teenaged punk/rock L.A. band before doing their thing in the 80s. My kinda punk is more Sex Pistols and to be honest, I am more into New Wave than punk. As one reviewer put it "Then punk settled down, got introspective and romantic, put on a skinny tie and started calling itself 'New Wave'".
I fucking love that little quote. LOL
So I watched "The Runaways", starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as it's front woman (at 15), Cherie Currie. Like I said, not a fan, but I was kinda hooked from the start. It had mid 70s L.A. pegged to a tee, Bowie, glitter, make-up, platforms, and there's Joan Jett wanting to rock like the boys but with only girls. They pretty much had the band together when she and their manager (eccentric Kim Fowley played by Michael Shannon) were writing songs and realized what the band was missing: A hot blonde, Bridget Bardot, jail-bait, heart-breaker. So they found Cherie and the rest is...... in the movie. (I'm not giving you all the good stuff!!)
See, pretty good casting, huh?!? While Dakota was great, I had no reference point since I had never seen or heard Cherie before. I may have heard their signature song "Cherry Bomb" (Hello Daddy, Hello Mom...I'm your CHERRY BOMB). But Kristen Stewart showed me she can do more than give blank stare's to Vampires with her SPOT ON Joan Jett. It was EERIE. I know both girls worked closely with who they were playing but Kristen even wanted to learn guitar and really BE Joan. It was stunning to see that she had quite a range after all.
Like I said, even if you aren't a fan, it's a good film. And it reminded me of being 16...No point in lying, I partied, I drank, I took whatever, I sang in a band, and I slept with guys and when they weren't available, my girlfriends. I was (like one of their songs) a WILD CHILD, which is probably why I am so sorta centered now. I did most of my crazy shit already, now I can move on. LOL
A third of the film used actors to play out important events in the hotel. Don't know what the Chelsea Hotel is?!? Ever heard of Mark Twain, Andy Warhol, Viva, Bob Dylan, Gaby Hoffman, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Milos Foreman, Madonna, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper and several others. The following lists others that have lived at or at least visited this haunted hotel throughout history:
• Janis Joplin
• Alice Cooper
• Patti Smith
• Jimi Hendrix
• Peter Walker
• Sid Vicious
• Jasper Johns
• Charles James
• R. Crumb
• Ruth Harkness
This Chelsea landmark has had *so* much history, especially artistic New York history that it has drawn out the most creative people of the last 100 years. And since we are here Sid did NOT kill Nancy there. Sid was passed out on 20something downers and booze. Nancy had 600 bucks in her purse, probably caught someone else trying to rip her off and got stabbed. Sid had no CLUE what happened. A few of their friends later said they went into that room that night and ALL saw Sid, in bed, passed out, and so out of it he couldn't hear his name being screamed at him. A couple of those people also saw blood and Nancy in the bathroom and Scrammed. When the Police got Sid to, they started -TELLING- him that he killed Nancy. Sid says questioningly and confused-like "What?! -I- killed Nancy????"
It was a drug-addict's confused question, not a confession. But the cops claim he confessed. The newspapers splashed "I killed Nancy, Says Sid". ::ROLLS EYES:: He told everybody else he was passed out on 20 or 30 high grade ludes, he doesn't know what happened. All he knew was he was so out of it he pissed himself and couldn't even raise his head off the pillow, not to mention pick a knife up (A knife that -Nancy- bought) But he killed himself months later because he couldn't live without her. That's not a guilty man. That's a man in love.
Sorry for going off on that tangent. It's a sore subject for me. Anyway though, the film was AMAZING, part documentary, part Docu-Drama, including the recreations of Sid and Nancy and what probably happened (my version, thank dog), and Janis Joplin. Saying more would ruin a film you REALLY should take a gander at. It was wonderful and something I know I will rewatch. You know, Xim once made a short film in the Chelsea, maybe once he gets his step-daughter back and all is well, he will share it will you. I have seen it and it is haunting and beautiful. That's all I will say.
And Last But CERTAINALLY not least, Meryl Streep's awarding winning turn playing...
We thought we knew it all huh. Let me start by saying her permanence was...well... what all of Streep's work is: SUPERB. I am half American and half British and Maggie was elected as first female Prime Minister of the U.K. the year I was born. So I don't remember a time when she wasn't on the news and I grew up thinking (no...KNOWING) women could do ANYTHING, including be Queen, fly in space, be on the supreme court, and be Prime Minister.
There was a scene that made me..well, us cry. As my friends you know I have been open with my bisexuality but my mate for the past 4 years has been male. There is one scene that takes place in 1950, when Miss. Roberts (as she was at the time) just lost her first election into Parliament (she got in 9 years later. I suppose it took getting a capable female MONARCH for the world to realize woman are smart, efficient, and not going to cry when they don't get their way).
Anywho, in the scene where she is crestfallen in 1950, one of her colleagues comes in with a few nips of whiskey and a sandwich to make her eat (like me, when she is working, she forgets the silliest things like to eat and sleep. That's what passion does to humans, I think). So her friend starts to propose to her and she says "OH Denis, I love you so much!!" and he starts to smile but she stops him and says "But I CANNOT and WILL NOT be the kind of wife that fetches your slippers, worries about dinner recipes, and will have myself glued to the children!! I MUST do my duty to this country!! I must be all I can!! One's life must MATTER, Denis, and if you think that I will stop being everything I am, an Oxford educated politician with hopes to change society, you are mistaken. I DO love you. I have never loved anybody like this before. But before I can accept any kind of proposal, you have to promise me that you understand. My ambition will NOT waver because I am somebody's wife or mother. I must BE somebody and DO something meaningful and important, Denis!! Please tell me that you understand!!?!!"
His handsome face looks at her cockeyed for a brief moment before saying "But that's precisely the REASON I wish to marry YOU, My dear."
We had to pause the film and keep ourselves from welling up (especially me) because we had nearly EXACTLY the same conversations when he proposed (Four Years ago in 3 weeks!!). He asked and I basically gave him my 'list of demands' and discovered it was exactly what and who I am that was the reason he wanted me and no other. It was a moving moment I hope I have not ruined.
The only two things I did not enjoy was A)Once she was Prime Minister, they didn't spend much time on it, her glories or shames. It was like she was in, there was a quick 80's montage, and she was suddenly out. That's small potatoes to my big gripe about an other-wise lovely and true film.
Mrs. Thatcher is alive and will therefore be watching this film I assume, as well as her twins and family. But her husband of 45 years, Denis Thatcher died of Cancer a half dozen years before the later parts of the movie. While she may have bits of Alzheimers, this film has her thinking she is talking to, eating with, and seeing off to work her long dead husband. Of course she is sharp enough to tell her family, strangers, and doctors that she has her wits about her but we mostly see Denis (played by the always brilliant and highly underrated Jim Broadbent) after he has been dead awhile, through Margaret's widowed eyes. In conversation, she can still turn on the Iron lady like that, and (spoiler) there is finally a lovely scene where she packs all his things to give to charity after hanging in their closet for years after his passing, packs him a little suitcase, dresses him in his coat (No, he is not really there for this) and talks to him a bit before sending him off, down their long dark hallway into a sudden light. I am not religious, but it was done in a way that you could see she was 'sending him off to heaven and he will be waiting for her'. Yes, This agnostic had 'something in her eye' for that scene. ;)
If Dame..oh, I mean Baroness Thatcher has such issues, I do not think that it's proper to make the film on it within her lifetime. I thought about that all through the film, how embarrassed certain scenes would make her, her family and friends. But At 87,after people bombing her home with her family in it and the IRA bombing the car of her friend and campaign adviser (and killing him just for supporting her), I hope to be as sharp as this 'Iron Lady'. She did so much in her time on this earth, but as a woman, she let little girls like me see her on TV and say "I can be that!! I can do that!!" If for this reason alone, she deserves our gratitude for her service. Especially since Sally Ride just passed away, we little girls in the 80s and 90s needed something to believe in and aspire to. Luckily, We lived in an age with many to choose from.
Well, off I go to be there for Y. (I wish I were close enough to the others to be able to be there for Xim too). I will give him your best wishes and be able to keep in touch while gone. Then I will do the final five (great documentaries!!! George Harrison, The Cure, Helter Skelter, John Cazale, and Stewart Sutcliffe. If you don't already know of these people, hopefully my reviews on those five documentaries will spark some interests!!)
Yours, Zuzie
The other Ten Films I saw this month can be split evenly into two categories: Documentaries on real people.. Or.. Docu-Drama's ABOUT real people yet played by actors. For the layman, one is filled with pictures and interviews and one is filled with recreations of the 'real people' and telling a story from some kind of Hindsight. I decided to give you a break on documentaries and focus this time on the five docudramas I have recently seen.
For starters, without knowing my facts, I never liked what I DID know of the man. Some of my reasons were spot on, and sometimes I was wrong. The reason I decided to give it a whorl with Leo playing Mr. Hoover is I am a big Howard Hughes fan and he didn't butcher Scorsese's film 'The Aviator'. I felt it was accurate while still telling people what this amazing man did without lying about his faults. Well, that is what Clint Eastwood did here with 'J. Edgar' (am I the only one that thinks Mr. Eastwood is a much better director than actor?!)
One thing I particularly liked was how Eastwood decided to depict Hoover in his lifelong relationship with Clyde Tolson. We know the facts. Tolson was Hoover's number two from the 20s until they died (very close together) in the mid-70s. We know they always ate their lunches and dinners together at various restaurants and clubs in 'their' special booths. We know for nearly 50 years, they took every holiday together, looking very 'nuzzled' and 'cozy' in the vacation snaps that -do- survive. We know various staff and waiters saw them canoodling, hand-holding, and that in their INNER circle, close friends like Ethel Merman would invite them BOTH to teas or parties and as a couple, they would answer and accept or decline, signing the card together and sending joint-gifts.
Every clue tells us that Hoover was a man of his time and thus a self-hating homosexual. (Thanks in part to his bigoted mother, played to precision by classy Dame Judi Dench...I mean, really, can that woman do any wrong?!) That on the one hand he went after gays and lesbians as badly as he went after Communists yet on the other hand, when he died, the first call his house-keeper made was to Clyde Tolson. When he came and saw him did he also grab all their love notes or photographs?? We know the second call was to his personal secretary, played well by a brunette Naomi Watts. Normally, I am not a fan of hers, but the darker hair made me see just Hoover's lifelong private secretary, Helen Gandy, I didn't register it as played by Naomi Watts until the credits!) who in the middle of the night, quietly did as Hoover asked her to do if something happened to him....DESTROY all personal files, all trace of what he had on the Presidents and himself. So hours later when the news hit Nixon, he sent his men to "GET THOSE COCKSUCKER'S FILES" and yet, the cubbard was bare. HA HA HA!!!! I loved how even in death, his two most trusted people protected his image. We can talk about things he may have done or been, but we can't PROVE it. That was his point.
Was he gay?! I think he was a self loathing homosexual that loved Clyde Tolson anyway and kept him close for many years. It was a sad time when you could have meals and cigars twice a day every day with the person you love but couldn't kiss him and tell him how much you need and love him. However, I did find one thing that may put this all to bed. A letter, more of a note really that Hoover wrote to Clyde Tolson: “Words are mere man-given symbols for thoughts and feelings, and they are grossly insufficient to express the thoughts in my mind and the feelings in my heart that I have for you, I hope I will always have you beside me.” 1943
I have a few things I wish to tell you about this film. It is BEAUTIFUL and so visually stunning sometimes that I rewound it to see certain things again. It takes place in the Elizabethan era (with young Elizabeth played by Joely Richardson and the older Elizabeth played by her mother, Vanessa Redgrave). It is on who wrote Shakespeare's work. Sounds stupid and like a question that answers itself. Yet it's not.
If you are like me and have studied this topic endlessly you will be horrified by the historical inaccuracies within this other-wise beautiful film. In fact, I was advised by my best mates not even to watch it because of how serious I am with my Tudor and Elizabethan history. So if you are on the same par with me, you CAN still enjoy this STUNNING and at times THRILLING film. Just check your head and facts at the door and don't see it with someone that doesn't know much about it because you will be tempted to say 'Oh, that's wrong... oh, but that's right' for two whole hours!!.
If you don't know much about this period in History, you can still enjoy it too. Just understand that 1/3 is right, 1/3 is wrong, and 1/3 has been up for debate for 400 years. It's not a film you can see and suddenly think you know some good and true history. Still, it is a great film other than playing with the facts and one that I am sure people will be arguing about for ages and when the arguments over the film stop, the arguments about who indeed wrote Shakespeare's body of work will resume. Like with religion, we can never truly know.
First off, I am not a huge fan of them. Okay, I wasn't a fan at all and knew precious little. I knew Joan Jett and Lita Ford were in a 70s all girl, teenaged punk/rock L.A. band before doing their thing in the 80s. My kinda punk is more Sex Pistols and to be honest, I am more into New Wave than punk. As one reviewer put it "Then punk settled down, got introspective and romantic, put on a skinny tie and started calling itself 'New Wave'".
I fucking love that little quote. LOL
So I watched "The Runaways", starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as it's front woman (at 15), Cherie Currie. Like I said, not a fan, but I was kinda hooked from the start. It had mid 70s L.A. pegged to a tee, Bowie, glitter, make-up, platforms, and there's Joan Jett wanting to rock like the boys but with only girls. They pretty much had the band together when she and their manager (eccentric Kim Fowley played by Michael Shannon) were writing songs and realized what the band was missing: A hot blonde, Bridget Bardot, jail-bait, heart-breaker. So they found Cherie and the rest is...... in the movie. (I'm not giving you all the good stuff!!)
See, pretty good casting, huh?!? While Dakota was great, I had no reference point since I had never seen or heard Cherie before. I may have heard their signature song "Cherry Bomb" (Hello Daddy, Hello Mom...I'm your CHERRY BOMB). But Kristen Stewart showed me she can do more than give blank stare's to Vampires with her SPOT ON Joan Jett. It was EERIE. I know both girls worked closely with who they were playing but Kristen even wanted to learn guitar and really BE Joan. It was stunning to see that she had quite a range after all.
Like I said, even if you aren't a fan, it's a good film. And it reminded me of being 16...No point in lying, I partied, I drank, I took whatever, I sang in a band, and I slept with guys and when they weren't available, my girlfriends. I was (like one of their songs) a WILD CHILD, which is probably why I am so sorta centered now. I did most of my crazy shit already, now I can move on. LOL
A third of the film used actors to play out important events in the hotel. Don't know what the Chelsea Hotel is?!? Ever heard of Mark Twain, Andy Warhol, Viva, Bob Dylan, Gaby Hoffman, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Dylan Thomas, Milos Foreman, Madonna, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper and several others. The following lists others that have lived at or at least visited this haunted hotel throughout history:
• Janis Joplin
• Alice Cooper
• Patti Smith
• Jimi Hendrix
• Peter Walker
• Sid Vicious
• Jasper Johns
• Charles James
• R. Crumb
• Ruth Harkness
This Chelsea landmark has had *so* much history, especially artistic New York history that it has drawn out the most creative people of the last 100 years. And since we are here Sid did NOT kill Nancy there. Sid was passed out on 20something downers and booze. Nancy had 600 bucks in her purse, probably caught someone else trying to rip her off and got stabbed. Sid had no CLUE what happened. A few of their friends later said they went into that room that night and ALL saw Sid, in bed, passed out, and so out of it he couldn't hear his name being screamed at him. A couple of those people also saw blood and Nancy in the bathroom and Scrammed. When the Police got Sid to, they started -TELLING- him that he killed Nancy. Sid says questioningly and confused-like "What?! -I- killed Nancy????"
It was a drug-addict's confused question, not a confession. But the cops claim he confessed. The newspapers splashed "I killed Nancy, Says Sid". ::ROLLS EYES:: He told everybody else he was passed out on 20 or 30 high grade ludes, he doesn't know what happened. All he knew was he was so out of it he pissed himself and couldn't even raise his head off the pillow, not to mention pick a knife up (A knife that -Nancy- bought) But he killed himself months later because he couldn't live without her. That's not a guilty man. That's a man in love.
Sorry for going off on that tangent. It's a sore subject for me. Anyway though, the film was AMAZING, part documentary, part Docu-Drama, including the recreations of Sid and Nancy and what probably happened (my version, thank dog), and Janis Joplin. Saying more would ruin a film you REALLY should take a gander at. It was wonderful and something I know I will rewatch. You know, Xim once made a short film in the Chelsea, maybe once he gets his step-daughter back and all is well, he will share it will you. I have seen it and it is haunting and beautiful. That's all I will say.
And Last But CERTAINALLY not least, Meryl Streep's awarding winning turn playing...
We thought we knew it all huh. Let me start by saying her permanence was...well... what all of Streep's work is: SUPERB. I am half American and half British and Maggie was elected as first female Prime Minister of the U.K. the year I was born. So I don't remember a time when she wasn't on the news and I grew up thinking (no...KNOWING) women could do ANYTHING, including be Queen, fly in space, be on the supreme court, and be Prime Minister.
There was a scene that made me..well, us cry. As my friends you know I have been open with my bisexuality but my mate for the past 4 years has been male. There is one scene that takes place in 1950, when Miss. Roberts (as she was at the time) just lost her first election into Parliament (she got in 9 years later. I suppose it took getting a capable female MONARCH for the world to realize woman are smart, efficient, and not going to cry when they don't get their way).
Anywho, in the scene where she is crestfallen in 1950, one of her colleagues comes in with a few nips of whiskey and a sandwich to make her eat (like me, when she is working, she forgets the silliest things like to eat and sleep. That's what passion does to humans, I think). So her friend starts to propose to her and she says "OH Denis, I love you so much!!" and he starts to smile but she stops him and says "But I CANNOT and WILL NOT be the kind of wife that fetches your slippers, worries about dinner recipes, and will have myself glued to the children!! I MUST do my duty to this country!! I must be all I can!! One's life must MATTER, Denis, and if you think that I will stop being everything I am, an Oxford educated politician with hopes to change society, you are mistaken. I DO love you. I have never loved anybody like this before. But before I can accept any kind of proposal, you have to promise me that you understand. My ambition will NOT waver because I am somebody's wife or mother. I must BE somebody and DO something meaningful and important, Denis!! Please tell me that you understand!!?!!"
His handsome face looks at her cockeyed for a brief moment before saying "But that's precisely the REASON I wish to marry YOU, My dear."
We had to pause the film and keep ourselves from welling up (especially me) because we had nearly EXACTLY the same conversations when he proposed (Four Years ago in 3 weeks!!). He asked and I basically gave him my 'list of demands' and discovered it was exactly what and who I am that was the reason he wanted me and no other. It was a moving moment I hope I have not ruined.
The only two things I did not enjoy was A)Once she was Prime Minister, they didn't spend much time on it, her glories or shames. It was like she was in, there was a quick 80's montage, and she was suddenly out. That's small potatoes to my big gripe about an other-wise lovely and true film.
Mrs. Thatcher is alive and will therefore be watching this film I assume, as well as her twins and family. But her husband of 45 years, Denis Thatcher died of Cancer a half dozen years before the later parts of the movie. While she may have bits of Alzheimers, this film has her thinking she is talking to, eating with, and seeing off to work her long dead husband. Of course she is sharp enough to tell her family, strangers, and doctors that she has her wits about her but we mostly see Denis (played by the always brilliant and highly underrated Jim Broadbent) after he has been dead awhile, through Margaret's widowed eyes. In conversation, she can still turn on the Iron lady like that, and (spoiler) there is finally a lovely scene where she packs all his things to give to charity after hanging in their closet for years after his passing, packs him a little suitcase, dresses him in his coat (No, he is not really there for this) and talks to him a bit before sending him off, down their long dark hallway into a sudden light. I am not religious, but it was done in a way that you could see she was 'sending him off to heaven and he will be waiting for her'. Yes, This agnostic had 'something in her eye' for that scene. ;)
If Dame..oh, I mean Baroness Thatcher has such issues, I do not think that it's proper to make the film on it within her lifetime. I thought about that all through the film, how embarrassed certain scenes would make her, her family and friends. But At 87,after people bombing her home with her family in it and the IRA bombing the car of her friend and campaign adviser (and killing him just for supporting her), I hope to be as sharp as this 'Iron Lady'. She did so much in her time on this earth, but as a woman, she let little girls like me see her on TV and say "I can be that!! I can do that!!" If for this reason alone, she deserves our gratitude for her service. Especially since Sally Ride just passed away, we little girls in the 80s and 90s needed something to believe in and aspire to. Luckily, We lived in an age with many to choose from.
Well, off I go to be there for Y. (I wish I were close enough to the others to be able to be there for Xim too). I will give him your best wishes and be able to keep in touch while gone. Then I will do the final five (great documentaries!!! George Harrison, The Cure, Helter Skelter, John Cazale, and Stewart Sutcliffe. If you don't already know of these people, hopefully my reviews on those five documentaries will spark some interests!!)
Yours, Zuzie