Interesting movie and book reports from Newsweek "Fall Preview"

[question everything]

First, the movie
'Lions For Lambs,' 11/9: The Iraq War began in 2003. By 2004, it was a mess. Given that movies take about three years to make, start to finish, we should expect Hollywood to begin delivering Iraq War movies by the bushel right about ... now. And here they come. 'Rendition,'10/19, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal; 'The Kingdom,'9/28, with Jamie Foxx, and Paul Haggis's 'In The Valley of Elah,'9/14, are all scheduled to arrive in theaters before "Lions for Lambs," but only "Lions" can boast this triple threat: Tom Cruise. Meryl Streep. Robert Redford. Cruise plays a U.S. senator who wants Streep's TV journalist to air a pro-war piece. Redford, who also directed the film, plays a college professor worried about two former students who enlisted in the military and are now missing in Afghanistan.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20438509/site/newsweek/

Second, a book
'Giving,' Bill Clinton, September: His ace in the hole as a politician was his ability to sound idealistic without seeming superior. This book is a plea to change the world through giving. His examples range from Bill and Melinda Gates to Dr. Paul Farmer—who started clinics to help the poor in Haiti and lately Rwanda—to a 6-year-old girl in California who organized her community to clean up the local beaches. This time Clinton left the policy-wonk part of his personality at home. This book-length sermon is all heart.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20438507/site/newsweek/

And in their Last and Least

'Blue Skies, No Fences,' Lynne Cheney, October: In this upbeat "Memoir of Childhood and Family," conservative icon (and VP spouse) Cheney tells about coming of age during the 1950s, and pays tribute to her pioneer ancestors, who "pinned their hopes on America and kept heading west." Laura Ingalls Wilder meets Dr. Laura. (I don't know, though, why this book is at the top of their online story)

[cascadiance]

1. Here's another article on the slew of anti-war and political films coming...

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2148221,00.html

A few more in this article not mentioned above...

"Redacted" - to be released in December, is directed by Brian de Palma and is about US soldiers persecuting an Iraqi family.

"Grace is Gone" - due out in October and directed by James Strouse, looks at the impact on a family of the loss of a wife and mother killed in Iraq

"Stop Loss" - scheduled for release next March, deals with a veteran who refuses to return to Iraq.

"The Hurt Locker" - on which filming is due to begin this week in Jordan and Kuwait, is written by Mark Boal, who also worked on In the Valley of Elah. The Hurt Locker concentrates on a US army explosives disposal unit in Iraq.

[question everything]

2. Thanks. I don't know if I will have the stomach to see all of them

but some should be a reality check for many with romantic notion of wars.