Golden Globe picks

This week rather than discussing a film, I'll be releasing my predictions for the Golden Globe winners

Best Original song- "Cinema Italiano" -Nine

Best Original Score- Karen O and Carter Burwell- Where the Wild Things Are

Best Screenplay- Quentin Tarantino- Inglourious Basterds

Best Director- Jason Reitman -Up in the Air

Best Foreign Language Film- The White Ribbon -Germany

Best Animated Film -Up

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role- Christoph Waltz -Inglourious Basterds

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role- Mo'Nique -Precious

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)- Marion Cotillard- Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)- Daniel Day Lewis -Nine

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)- Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)- Emily Blunt- The Young Victoria

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)- Jeff Bridges -Crazy Heart

Best Motion Picture (Drama) -Up in the Air

Well those are my predictions, we'll see how it comes out at the golden globe awards

A note on societal censorship

In the first amendment to the Constitution, our forefathers ensured that the government would not censor books or movies. This doesn't mean that you can walk into an store and find some movies though. What occurs is a phenomena I like to call societal censorship. This means that while it is legal to watch a movie, people generally don't, not because it isn't good but because it has lurid subject matter considered indecent or low class. While these movies may be indecent, they aren't always, sometimes they just deal with a subject that people would rather not discuss. Major stores, and especially chains may not carry a movie because it is too controversial. This further isolates the movie from our thoughts, and it becomes lost. One such film was White Dog. Directed by Sam Fuller, the film examines socially indoctrinated racism through a fierce metaphor. The film was dubbed to be "trash" and shut out of the public eye quickly when it arose questions over an issue that people would rather leave untouched. It has only recently been revived, and its questions re-opened. It is important that we accept all works, even if their views contrast our own, because we must not close up our own world.

Film of the Week: Straw Dogs 1971

Sam Peckinpah recieved the nickname "Bloody Sam" for his gratuitous violence in the late sixties, at a time when violence in the movies was a more volatile issue than it is today. All the controversy drawn by his masterpiece The Wild Bunch, doesn't begin to match the controversy stirred up by his 1971 film Straw Dogs. The film is a story of an american scholar, played by Dustin Hoffman, who moves to England with his wife. The trouble begins when a few local thugs begin to harass Hoffman, and even rape his wife. When Hoffman shelters a murderer from them, the thugs become more violent forcing Hoffman to defend his home using somewhat ethically questionable methods. The film is often unavailable even today from major stores who want to avoid the controversy that the film stirred up.