Crash - 78th Best Picture Winner

Crash - 78th Best Picture Winner

2004

#152

Starring:

Sandra Bullock

Don Cheadle
Matt Dillon
Jennifer Esposito
William Fichtner
Brendan Fraser
Terrence Howard
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Thandie Newton
Ryan Phillippe
Larenz Tate

Directed By:

Paul Haggis

2005 Academy Award Winner:

Best Picture

Best Original Screenplay

Best Film Editing

Other Films Nominated:

Brokeback Mountain

Capote

Good Night, And Good Luck

Munich

I find myself watching another Best Picture winner on our movie calendar. This one I don't know much about although I know that it in some way owes itself to another Best Picture Winner - Grand Hotel - as it is along the same lines of multiple characters' lives intersecting. 

The difference? 

This time it's about race. 

How we all treat each other 

How each race views what is happening.

This though, like Cloud Atlas, all wraps back on itself. 

An honest take on how we all see those that aren't like us. 

And how those in power abuse that power when they stop treating people as people and only see the color of their skin. 

Race is a topic that is a sensitive one. While most of us never admit it, we all have a skewed perspective on how our race is treated. We all, in some way, buy into the stereotypes. 

In some way we even live them - though we don't realize it. There are those that perpetuate the stereotype and don't know it - in what they say, what they do. They don't know they've bought into what the world says and thinks. 

Some live the stereotype almost on purpose. To the point where they seem to revel in it. They glorify and perpetuate it. Others see hate and injustice and persecution where there isn't any, out of a sense of what? Entitlement? So bent on expecting it to occur because of the color of their skin that they take any small thing as a sign of racial divide.

And when we are met with someone that doesn't fit into that stereotype, that goes against the perceived societal norm, we don't know what to do. We don't know how to act, to think. Worse yet when we are the one that doesn't fit into what others expect. We only see our life as it is, and don't understand why others have issue with us.

But we all have, at some point, used race as the excuse to hide the real issues. 

Hate. Intolerance. Anger. Fear. Powerlessness.

We deflect what is really happening, what we are really feeling, and instead use slight difference as the blame for our actions and our thoughts. 

But if we removed skin color from the equation? If we all looked the same? 

The film also speaks to the consequences of our actions. What we do to others, what we say, will have meaning. It is not pointless. Every action will cause something to happen to someone else. Every word will cause a feeling or another action which will in turn affect someone else. We joke about what would happen if someone went back 4 million years into Earth's past and killed a butterfly - maybe we'd all have two heads and purple skin. Some call it karma - what you give, what you put out into the world, you will get back. If you make the world a better place, it will be a better place for you. But if you choose to make negative choices, they will eventually come back to you. 

Its only when we do to make things right, to atone for what we did or should've done but did not, that life balances out. 

"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." - Desmond Tutu

Argo - 85th Best Picture Winner

Argo - 85th Best Picture Winner
2012
#145

Starring:
Ben Affleck
Brian Cranston
Alan Arkin
John Goodman

Directed By:
Ben Affleck

2012 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Film Editing

Other Films Nominated:
Amour
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

So I had intended, had I not found work, to watch all the best picture winners this year, leading up to the most recent winner, Argo. But since August, I've had work, so less time to write. I also took up writing for a Doctor Who fansite, so that took me away as well. 

I never realized that we'd chosen to watch this in December, not long after the anniversary of hostage crisis' beginning and not long before the anniversary of it's end. 

For those of you not alive then (or like me a baby at the time) - the exiled Shah of Iran was allowed to enter the US because he was dying of cancer and was seeking treatment to better his last days. The Ayatollah Khomeini (the leader of Iran who had taken over after the Shah was exiled) and many others thought the Shah should be brought back to the country to stand trial for crimes against the state. 

On November 4, 1979, a number of young extremists took over the US embassy and it's compound and took hostages. Even after the Shah had died, they refused to release those they held. And attempt at rescuing the hostages failed. They were not released until 444 days later, after the Algiers Accords were signed on January 19, 1981, and just minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the US President. 

A small handful - 6 people - managed to get out and with the help of the Canadian, British, and New Zealand consulates, made it back to the US safe and sound, posing as Canadians in a film crew.  

The reading of the fake script in contrast to the statement from an Iranians is stark and very effective. A good juxtaposition of the real and the fictional. The use of the real news footage from the period is also effective. In ways it helps make up for the historical inaccuracies and dramatic license taken for the film and really helps set the tone of the movie and draw you into the time period of the movie.

Is it sad though, that one of the things I'll most remember about the film is that the storyboards for the "fake" movie were actually done by THE Jack Kirby when the real movie was trying to get made?

Personally, I do still favor Beasts Of The Southern Wild from this same Oscar race. The imaginative nature of the movie and the performances were just superb. But Argo is the type of movie that can be Oscar bait - the historical drama. And with Beasts being that director's first movie, to be even considered and nominated really is an achievement. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution#Hostage_Crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper

The Grapes Of Wrath

The Grapes Of Wrath

1940

#95

Starring:

Henry Fonda

Jane Darwell

John Carradine

Directed By:

John Ford

1941 Academy Awards

Winner:

Best Supporting Actress

Best Director

So this is old. More than a month old. But life has been busy and sitting to watch anything and blog about it? Not really happening. This was just something that I was doing while I was watching the movie, mostly just my thoughts as it played. Watching it, I really felt the need to put my thoughts down. So I apologize that it's a bit disjointed. Looking back at it, I attempted to have this make a more narrative type sense but then realized this as it was was truer to what I was thinking at the time. And because trying to have it make any more readable sense was close to impossible LOL

While this isn't among those films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture (although it was nominated) it did win Oscars for Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell and Best Director for John Ford. It was also included in both of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies lists, at #21 and #23 respectively. 

Early August...

In the category of You Might Be A Movie Geek When...

Not much on tonight.
Could've watched the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom. Or the Hangover. I chose to sit thru The Grapes of Wrath from 1940.

While known to not be exactly like Steinbeck's book, this is one of the films teachers love to show. Sometimes seeing what you've read about in a book is the only way to really have the mind and the heart make a connection

Shot of tractor tracks past the family and through the house and then following behind the CAT as it keeps going is powerful. Doesn't matter what your income level is, you feel as if those tracks are run right over your own heart.

To think that your only choice is to load up everything you own that you can carry and leave is heartbreaking. The film makes an adventure of it of sorts with some cheerful music as the ride Rte 66 but the reality of it is harsh.

And then reality hits. What they are heading to, what they hope and assume is there, probably isn't. This is the Depression.

Some more stark reality - the car repair shop guy cant believe they are living on the road, ridding out to CA. The other says guess they don't know better. They have good jobs. They haven't felt the reality of no money and no job and no food

We've seen grandpa pass on the trip, now grandma.

How so much has changed. We travel some of the same routes and roads but dying on the trip doesn't happen. Its not the same journey

Get to CA and there is no work. Get to a camp for transients and its packed. No work. No food.

Scammers trying to get men to work without contract so they can stiff them on the wages.

Growers paying half what they say to get more work done for less wages. Keeping the families they employ - because the kids work too - from even being able to afford the overpriced goods in the only store they can get to, owned by the company.

The story isn't just about their hardships. Its about the family. How they're trying to keep together despite the hardships.

And then the promised land as it were. A camp run by the governmant Dept of Agriculture. 

The kids don't even know what a bathroom is, what a sink, or a flush toilet is.

Finally a place were there is running water, decent food, licensed agents to get you work, dances even!

Even then things aren't perfect and the past catches up to them

So many layers -
Economy
Poverty
Injustice
Dealing with what comes in life

Were the people. We keep on living. They cant wipe us out they cant lick us we keep right on living

Just so interesting to see how while things have changed, they haven't. The more things change the more they stay the same, yeah? We are currently struggling with massive amounts of people being out of work (like I was at the time I watched this) or with people being underemployed (like I am now) and with the same issues of living conditions and hunger and poverty. Those things will never go away but even after all these years - 74 of them! - you'd think maybe this whole world would be a little better? 

Just for a little extra, here's the film's Rotten Tomatoes page.

It Happened One Night - 7th Best Picture Winner

It Happened One Night - 7th Best Picture Winner

1934

#65

Starring:
Clarke Gable

Claudette Colbert

Directed By:

Frank Capra

1934 Academy Awards

Winner:

Outstanding Picture

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Director

Best Adapted Screenplay (or Best Writing, Adaptation)

Other Films Nominated:

The Barretts Of Wimpole Street

Cleopatra

Flirtation Walk

The Gay Divorcee

Here Comes The Navy

The House Of Rothchild

Imitation Of Life

One Night Of Love

The Thin Man

Viva Villa!

The White Parade

The classic rom-com. I dare say one of the best, even 79 years later. Gable and Colbert are wonderful with each other, though Gable clearly steals every scene. You can see here why years later they'd want him for Rhett Butler. Some of the looks he gives Colbert speak so much without word, you can almost hear what he is thinking.

This isn't one of the movies on the list that I'd ever seen before, but so many people know of it for one little scene - Gable's Peter Warne and Colbert's Ellen Andrews are trying to hitchhike on the road after running away from the Greyhound bus they had been on because the investigators her father had hired to find her would be closing in on them soon. He tries to seem like he knows all about hitchhiking, telling her there are different types of sticking your thumb out and they all say different things about you. But try as he might, all of the passing cars just go right by them...so she gives it a try.

Along comes a car and she...hikes up her skirt. 

Very racy for 79 years ago! 

Of course you know it works too!

And it's such a classic that's so many others have used it or a take on it.

This was the first movie to win the "Big 5" Academy Awards - Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Writing (Adaptation)

Interesting to note that this won against the movie version of The Gay Divorcee, a Rogers/Astaire picture that is just as well known for it's Cole Porter, "Night and Day" song and dance number.

.

Its also refreshing to see a rom-com that, since it's from 79 years ago, when thoughts on sex and sex scenes in movies were a LOT different, that we have a couple thrown together who sleep in separate beds and don't get together until the end of the movie - after they are married! A bit "old fashioned" I know, but proof a good story doesn't always need to go there. Such things are almost a crutch in the movies of today, that are so unsure they have a good story, they feel they need to throw skin shots into the film or no one will like it.

Cavalcade - 6th Best Picture Winner

Cavalcade - 6th Best Picture Winner
1933

Starring:
Diana Wynyard
Clive Brook
Una O'Connor
Herbert Mundin

Directed By:
Frank Lloyd

1932 - 1933 Academy Awards
Winner:
Outstanding Production
Best Director
Best Art Direction

Other Films Nominated:
A Farewell To Arms
42nd Street
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang
Lady For A Day
Little Women
The Private Life Of Henry VIII
She Done Him Wrong
Smilin' Through
State Fair


So...the one I have to skip. This movie is currently not available on any region 1 DVD, though I have seen rumor that it will be released on Blu-ray soon. But from the reviews I've seen, I'm not sure I will go back and watch it. Seems that it isn't that well liked.

Apparently based on a Noel Coward play of the same name, it is the story of well off Londoners from New Years Eve 1899 through New Years Day 1933.

Grand Hotel - 5th Best Picture Winner

Grand Hotel - the 5th Best Picture Winner

1932

#60

Starring:

Greta Garbo

John Barrymore

Joan Crawford

Wallace Beery

Lionel Barrymore

Directed by:

Edmund Goulding

1931-1932 Academy Awards

Winner: Best Picture

It should be noted that as of 2012, it is the ONLY picture to win Best Picture without anyone else involved in the production or the production itself being nominated for other awards.)

Other films nominated:

Arrowsmith

Bad Girl

The Champ

Five Star Final

One Hour With You

Shanghai Express

The Smiling Lieutenant 

The film is based on a stage play of the same name which, in turn, is adapted from the 1929 German book Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum.

We begin...

The phone bank. Lots of calls, each operator very busy. 

We are in the lobby areas of a very large hotel, with visitors as well as semi-permanent residents all bustling about. 

So this will be an anthology film - multiple stories that are woven together by some point shared by all. The hotel. (According to Wikipedia, this may be the first.) 

Story 1 - Door man - wife having baby

Story 2 - Sick man - spending all his money before he dies

Story 3 - The general director (the businessman) calling home on business. He's there for a business meeting. He's asked for a stenographer. 

Story 4 - The maid for the ballerina. She cannot rehearse today. 

Story 5 - The baron, plotting something and in need of money

The doctor,  he laments that nothing ever happens here. 

The stenographer comes a little to early. Oops. 

Our stories begin to cross. To weave together. The baron talking to the sick man, the stenographer talking to the baron. The baron talking to the stenographer. They flirt. Life in the hotel. 

We aren't above the innuendo... "Would you take dictation from me someday?" 

The ballerina that doesn't want to go on. She is weary and tired of it all. There is no applause any more. She doesn't think it worth it anymore to go on, but when told there is an audience, she will go on

Turns out our baron - he's after the ballerina's pearls that she's left behind. 

Our stenographer is working for the businessman. But maybe his business isn't going the way he wants to. 

And now our baron is going in for the heist...

Only to be stuck and having to hide because the maid comes in.

Oh but now the ballerina is back. Seems she didn't actually go on. And they are worried about her. We see just how weary she is here. (Her apparently famous line) "I just want to be alone."

Meanwhile, trapped in the closet...

She finds that someone went on in her place. The show must go on. Maybe she isn't the best anymore. Maybe she is done. Its over. She contemplates killing herself. 

But the baron stops her. He cant let her end it. He confesses his want to hold her in his arms (the old euphemism for love and sex lol)

He knows she really doesn't want to be alone. She needs someone. 

The sick man and the doctor have had a good time, living it up! 

The business meeting. But the businessman isn't saying that the merger with the other company is off...he's trying to make things happen without needing them. But the others aren't buying it. 

Our ballerina and baron are chatting...and he reveals himself. He is a thief...but he is in love with her.

She loves him back anyways

She tells him about heading to Vienna and he vows to be on that train with her

The business meeting has devolved into arguing about who was the one that approached who about the merger. A stalemate. 

The deal is off.

So he lies and says the other merger is on. These men change their tune! But they don't know the lie - and only then does he tell his partner! They will have to figure out how to keep it secret. But what about that stenographer? She knows!

The sick man has had the time of his life. Plenty of alcohol and adventures! 

Our baron is now stepping out with the stenographer. But he's changed. He's in love!

The the businessman doesn't recognize our sick man - but the man works for him. No matter, the man  needs to go off and dance with the stenographer.

But now there is an altercation. The businessman is rude to the sick man - but now it comes out. The horrible treatment of the workers. He's working himself to death! He tells the man off after he tries to fire him.

"No one can discharge me now I am my own man!"

The businessman wishes to employ the stenographer on a trip. But she will need money. 

The baron promises the ballerina he will be there...but he is broke.

The sick man asks if he can help. But of course its not enough. But maybe they can get a game going...

But the sick man is a better gambler. He wins, the baron loses

"Oh gentlemen, please don't go. Be my guest. Be my guest! I beg of you, don't go I know I oughtn't to presume, but I'm so grateful to ya, you've been so marvelous. For the first time in my life, I've gambled and I've drank! Oh you gentlemen can laugh, but for the first time in my life I've tasted life! Life is wonderful but its very dangerous! If you have the courage to live it's marvelous! You don't know anything about that, you're all healthy and happy but I, believe me, if a man doesn't know death, he doesn't know life!"

The baron sees the sick man's wallet...he takes it.

But the man realizes its gone.

Baron lies. The man is distraught. The baron can't keep it. His conscious can't let him hide it.

The businessman...maybe this hiring the stenographer isn't just business...he tries to get handsy...but she easily brushes him off...and he sees in the next room...

The Baron is trying to rob him...

He threatens to arrest him. They fight and the stenographer hears it...the baron...he is...

dead

she screams

runs out for help

the ballerina and party don't know there is anything wrong

she gets the sick man

the businessman tries to get away

he is for sure dead

the businessman blames it all on him he tried to rob me! And where is the girl? She's in on it that's it! she lured me to her!

we need to get our stories together! I cant have scandal!

my life is in your hands!

ah yeah but what about when it was the other way around? 

but but I can help you! Give you a good position!

"NO! I'm never going back! Worry about yourself!" 

The staff is alerted

The ballerina is giddy.

But its too quiet...

"All these flowers make me think of funerals..."

She rings the baron. He isn't there to answer. But she doesn't know he won't ever be.

Where can he be?

They take him away...

The businessman is arrested

There's been a murder? Oh no not him! Why? No I can't believe it!

Madam mustn't know!

The sick man, the stenographer, they grieve. 

"You loved him didn't you.

Me too. He was my friend when no one else was. He was just desperate."

Oh let me help you. We can travel! 

You can have the rest of the money when...when I'm gone.  

NO! We'll find a doctor. They can cure anything

First train to Paris! We'll go

The ballerina, she is leaving. But yet they say nothing. 

"Where is he?"

"He...left about an hour ago."

"Forget it I will ask myself."

"Have you seen him?"

"He is not here madam."

"Is he gone?"

"Yes madam"

Oh come now. We have a rehearsal! We must get to the train

The Grand Hotel! We've made it!

The hospital! What? What? WHAT? Its a boy! My wife is well!

We're gonna miss the train! I'm coming!

'The Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come, people go, nothing ever happens.'

Films like this can be hard to follow. It takes a good story and the right people,acting and behind the camera, to make it work right. Is it any wonder that "Grand Hotel theme" was used to talk about films in this style? I admit though, I needed to write down all of what was going on so I could pay attention and not miss anything! 

(Forgive me please how this came out as a blog. With all the story lines, this kind of came naturally as a recap of it.)

Cimarron - 4th Best Picture Winner

Cimarron - 4th Best Picture Winner
1931

#50

Starring:

Richard Dix
Irene Dunne

Directed By:

Wesley Ruggles

1930 - 31 Academy Awards:

Winner:

Outstanding Production

Best Writing, Adaptation

Best Art Direction

Also Nominated:

East Lynne

The Front Page

Skippy

Trader Horn

So here's what I know before I watched it. It's a western. According to the sleeve it was a book by a woman. (Edna Ferber) First Western to win BP. Released in 1931. And sounds incredibly boring. I'm not the biggest fan of Westerns...
And I thought this was about a horse? Oh right...different movie.

Wow. This is boring. Like very. Oh and let's not forget the black mammie and nappy haired child with the heavily broken and slangged speech and "dirty" "Injuns" and the beginning of every Western trope out there...
Oh and he lead actor with so much makeup on he looks like a woman. Hell he's got on more makeup than the real woman do!
Oh and they named their son Cimarron...
Oh and I'm not sure if that guy was a dark Caucasian or a Hispanic...
And the "whores" going to church and being talked about...
Because yes its possible to shoot someone when the gun never goes 6 inches from your hip...
And the "whore"  is trying to redeem herself...

Now our lead runs off on the adventure of claiming land, not happy with the world he has with the wife and kids...
Leaving her to write and run the newspaper
And apparently he joined the Army at some point. Helped liberate Cuba.
Now he's the noble hero defending anyone's honor. Just got home now he's defending the local "whore" from the small minds of the town.

Apparently there isn't anything this man cant do...

Oh and hes got three stripes and a diamond. Hes got to be at least a sergeant now too I think?

Jump a head from 1898 to 1907

Now we have the oil drilling
The daughter is a brat
The son is horror of horrors dating the hired "Injun" girl and intends to marry her

Our hero is running for governor

And wont endorse any plan to take the land and oil from the Indians

He even wants to give the "red man" citizenship and the right to vote!

Now its 1929
His name is still on the masthead but he hasn't been around for years and doesn't write home. He's still off on adventures
Oh but now the Mrs has become a State Congresswoman!

One good line here at the end - the old lady that was always the gossip and bragged about her ancestor that signed the Declaration once again tells the Jewish man about that as to why he wasn't considered for a spot on the committee because he wasn't from a historical family. His retort?

"One of my ancestors, named Moses, he wrote the Ten Commandments!"

And while she is in the city there is an accident at the oil rigs and an old drifter that works there is killed....they call him "old Yan" - she runs to him realizing that it is her husband, dying heroically to the end.

Honestly the plot here is just the wife dealing with the dude's comings and goings. Not really much of an actual plot. So how the heck did this win best picture? About the only good part of this whole film is showing just how strong she is. Dude was a lousy husband more concerned with his own adventures than the welfare of his family.

The best part of the whole movie? The other things included on the disc, which I assume are connected to the movie in some way, though I'm unsure as to how, though most things I find it just seems like they were randomly combined.

A Merry Melodies cartoon - Red Headed Baby 

Porky Pig before he was Porky! All about toys that come to life. A doll that sings Red Headed Baby. (The negative here is the black face doll. But that was acceptable at the time.)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022300/

There is also a short on the disc - "The Devils Cabaret"
Very surreal. The devil lamenting too many people going to heaven and not coming down to them. He sends his representative up to earth to attract more people with the "evils" of "hot music" and "the devils toys" and dancing. Not much survives to be known about this short, other than it was apparently taken from a never-produced musical. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022817/

http://precodecinema.blogspot.com/2006/03/classic-pre-code-4-devils-cabaret-1931.html

Both of these are pre-Hayes code. No would the 2nd short EVER have been allowed after that until I'd gather sometime in the 50s or 60's when people started to criticize the censuring of the arts. I really like it and then to think it came from 1931? Wow. Mind blowing! One wonders what else would've been produced had Hollywood not had a bout of morality. And its in early two-tone Technicolor too! 

What's sad is that while both of these are on YouTube, there is only one copy and I'm sure not many people know about them. Sad to see such gems from movie past so forgotten.

Red Headed Baby - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP1Pja_IltQ

The Devil's Cabaret - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij2AsmQ_6ZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOgHueVqyyU

All Quiet On The Western Front - 3rd Best Picture Winner

All Quiet On The Western Front – 3rd Best Picture Winner

1930

#48

Starring:

Louis Wolhiem

Lew Ayres

Directed By:

Lewis Milestone

1929-30 Academy Awards
Winner:

Outstanding Picture

Best Director

Other Films Nominated:

The Big House

Disraeli

The Divorcee

The Love Parade

So, this is the first of these Best Picture winners that I have previously seen. Being such an old film, this is, of course, in part to my father - this was one films that he had in his collection that was borrowed by one of my high school teachers for the class to watch. (Possibly in 11^th grade)

This is the first Best Picture winner to take its story from a book, in this case of the same name, and published in 1929. It was the second “talkie” to win for Best Picture, the first war talkie to win. It is still seen today as a great epic and powerful film because of its honest portrayal of the horror of war.

As I write this, I have the movie playing in another pane on my screen. I can see most of the image though I admit Im listening more than watching. At the moment Im about 45 minutes into it. Here's the thing. I had to pause it about 30 minutes in because of the breaking news in the real world. Bombs going off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The eerie part? They apparently went off just around the time I started watching the movie. 

I'm not a runner. I know a few, have a few family members that like it. Heck I didn't even know that today was the Boston Marathon. (Honestly I didn't know they ran it on a weekday. Always thought those things were Saturday/Sunday events...) I thank the Lord I don't know anyone that was there as a runner or as a spectator. 

And I find that I'm oddly desensitized to what's going on. Sure I was basically following the breaking developments on Twitter - heck that's the first place I turned. And I told my dad what was going on and about the reports of how many had gotten hurt. But I find myself only mildly surprised at what's happening and the fact that I've got a war movie playing in the background - I'm almost indifferent. (Though I did have to turn in down because of how loud the explosions seemed) Seeing a picture of the scene with blood on the sidewalk and when I should be horrified, I just repost the picture and move on.

This movie isn't some love story. Its war. Bright, young, idealists thinking they are doing their patriotic duty that come to find the harsh realities of being on the front line - stuck in bunkers and holes in between times of fighting. Losing your friends and fellow soldiers in horrible deaths. Dying of sickness and injuries if you manage to survive getting hurt on the line. Not getting enough food or anything you really need if you manage not to get hurt. 

I stopped the movie again. I'm now at an hour and 11 minutes in. I'd closed Twitter and FB for a bit, figured things were quiet for a second. Now I see the reports of a possible 3rd explosion. More suspected and confirmed devices found. The growing list of the injured.

But now I'm marveling at how connected the world really is. Just a mere 2 hours from the time of the first explosions, there has been plenty of video and now still images coming in from all around the area. And the growing group of those hearing about what has happened from all around the world and who have come to social media to check on friends, family, or just offer general condolences to the world at large.

Whatever this turns out to be, we are all affected.

I understand why this movie was given its awards, nominated to Best Of lists time and time again over the years. It is part of the long history of what media can do when treated not just as entertainment but as a way to show the truth and give everyone a reality check. While yes, they are acting, they didn't actually die, the explosions are fake and sometimes just sound effects, it still speaks to something in every person. 

We may not fight on the front lines, but when war and fighting happens, we are all affected. 

I can't speak to knowing how to stop violence, honestly I can't see that it will ever stop. People will still clash over ideas and beliefs and some will go so far as to think that hurting those that are different or believe different is the best way to change something, no matter how many times and in how many different ways the world has been shown time and time again that violence doesn't work out how those that perpetrate it plan it to. 

More so I think it is our response to violence and those that have different ideals that will change things in this world.

Case in point - I did not vote for the man, do not think he should have his job, but I agree with him on this - 

"On days like this there are no Republicans or Democrats. We are Americans, united in concern for our fellow citizens." - Barack Obama