For What It's Worth

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2007) -vs- Michael Collins (1996)

The Smackdown. With people worldwide celebrating the Irish today (St. Patrick's Day) by wearing shamrocks, marching in parades, even drinking green beer. It can be a ton of fun, to be sure, but the Ireland of fairly recent history was a very serious place where political battles were decided in revolution and civil war. Our Irish Movie Smackdown pays tribute to those days by putting a couple of films in the ring together that tell the story. These two classic films of Irish-rebellion -- "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "Michael Collins" -- were made a decade apart. Back in the Clinton years, Liam Neeson starred in the title role as Irish rebel turned Free Stater, "Michael Collins," and a few days before St. Patrick's Day in 2007, Cillian Murphy played a rebel on the other side of the bloody Irish Civil War in "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." They each tell stories about the years when Irish eyes were definitely not smiling...

 

Two powerful directors face off here, too: Neil Jordan for the first, and Ken Loach for the second. Both of their films attempt to make the Irish drive for freedom both understandable and dramatic for a film audience. Let's assume -- for the sake of our argument -- that you've got the patience for one film to enlighten you about Irish political history and the time to watch it before St. Patrick's Day 2010. Which movie will give you the best understanding, and the best film experience?

PERSONAL DETOUR:  My family spent two weeks in Ireland a few summers ago where we saw The Rolling Stones play before 70,000 Irish partygoers in the fields outside Slane Castle just north of Dublin. I guess the idea of tens of thousands of rowdy Irish cheering a band of Brits shows just how much healing has gone on during the past century (and even in the decades since Bloody Sunday). 

HISTORICAL SIDEBAR: I make no claim to deep understanding of Irish politics, but the recent visit and watching these two fine films has given me a sense of the basics. Mostly, it seems, the Irish never, ever wanted to be part of the United Kingdom or British Empire. They wanted to be their own country. Period. 

They revolted numerous times, but the one that took began in 1916. Initially, it ended in disaster with the ringleaders rounded up by the British and executed. My son and I visited Kilmainham Gaol on our trip, the place where the revolutionaries of the 1916 Easter uprising were stood up before firing squads and executed. It affected me deeply. It reminded me that if my own country had tried and failed, the British would have similarly lined up Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Henry and the entire gang and killed them, too. 

This deadly response to the rebellion not only inflamed and united the country of Ireland, but it caused the Irish Republican Army to adopt new guerilla style tactics. From 1919 through 1922, the Irish fought the British with everything they had. This was their War for Independence (i.e. USA, think 1776). A treaty was agreed upon where they would be an Irish Free State but still part of the dominion, like Canada, and Northern Ireland would be split off and remain a part of Great Britain. This split the Irish into two factions: those who thought it was better than nothing and wanted to move ahead under the treaty, and those who said half a loaf of bread was no loaf at all. They fought a bloody Civil War (i.e. USA, think 1865).

Now, having said all this, we return to our Smackdown...

The Dark Power of 9/11 Seen from Above

New photos of 9/11 have been obtained by ABC News under the Freedom of Information Act.  They're aerial photos and they will show you the dark power of that day in a whole new way.

 Here is a link to Salon's slide show of the photos.

The Emmy Postponements of 2001

I'll always remember October 7, 2001 but not the way you might think.  It was a Sunday morning and we were about to do the Emmy Awards that day.  As the newly elected chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, I'd already been involved -- as my first challenge in office -- with the first cancelation ever of an Emmy broadcast.  When the September 11 attacks happened, it had been a no-brainer to immediately postpone the planned September 16 show.  I was putting on my running shoes, about to go for a quick spin to settle the nerves in anticipation of speaking to a worldwide audience of 90-million people that day, when the phone rang.  The voice on the other end said, "Turn on your TV."

Bryce Zabel, ATAS CEO; Les Moonves, CBS President; Don Mischer, Emmy Producer (Photo by Mathew Imaging, Craig Mathew)

I turned on the TV in my home office and it was immediately apparent that America was at war in Afghanistan and that the Emmys probably weren't going to happen that day either.  That photo above is the news conference that would be held hours later to postpone the Emmy Awards a second time!  Even though I've been a CNN correspondent, this was the largest group of cameras I'd ever seen in a single location.  The rule of thumb, of course, is that if you come to cover a story and the story's not happening, cover the reasons the story isn't happening and that story becomes your new story.

That morning we went through the motions or, as they like to call it, we did our "due diligence" and called nominees, agents, managers, network executives, everybody we could think of.  It became clear that not only was the nation's attention focused on the beginning of war, post 9/11, but the very people we would expect to come to the Emmys were having grave doubts.  They did not want to be seen as thinking that getting an award was as important as an issue of life-or-death.

So we gave over three-thousand gourmet dinners to homeless shelters, told the limo drivers not to come, asked the stars to put their tuxes and gowns back in the closets and told the media we'd think about what our future plans were.

The next day I appeared as a guest on "Politically Incorrect" and got in an argument with Bill Mahrer who said we should have just done them anyway.  My feeling was (and is) that you don't want to be the host of a party that nobody wants to come to and that having the Emmys that day would have done serious damage to the Academy.

As it turned out, the third time was the charm.  We did the Emmys on November 4, 2001 with Ellen DeGeneres hosting and going up against the seventh game of an exciting World Series.  The whole show probably gets an asterisk in the history books.

Eight years later, I've been out of the Academy for years, moving on with my life, and a thousand nominees have come and gone.  The war in Afghanistan is still with us.

Let's be glad that President Obama and his team are practicing their "due diligence" even as we speak.

Movie Smackdown Watches 9/11 on Film

Hard to believe, isn't it?  Eight years since 9/11...

Two films about 9/11 were released in 2006 on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack.

To read the full review, go to United 93 -vs- World Trade Center.  A reader's poll has just gone up, too, so please do express your own opinion.

MOVIE SMACKDOWN! - Two Reviews... One Film... No Holds Barred!

Review and Comix by Bryce Zabel

Giving Peace a Chance: Between Shalom and Salaam

If you live anywhere near Santa Barbara and you care about bringing peace to the Middle East, I'd like to invite you to come visit us at the 2009 Israeli-Palestinian Film Festival.

Hi, I'm Lauren Zabel, the Head Chair of the Event.

This year's festival is being held between Monday, May 4 and Thursday May 14.  We have a collection of films that are guaranteed to expand your horizons, make you think and see the world with just a little more perspective.  We open with "Waltz with Bashir" but keep the momentum going with 11 more truly impactful films.

Please feel free to visit our website for details.

Or you can download a PDF of our flyer.

We hope you'll think of us as an organization worthy of your support.  We're student run and we appreciate whatever you can do but mostly we'd like you to come see one or more of these films.

UCSB's very own Israeli Palestinian Film Festival grew out of a tiny film club that met weekly to watch and discuss the latest and classics of Israeli cinema. Looking for a way to dive into the societies of Israel, beyond the news and the surface facts, was the main purpose for many of the club's initial members. Many had a solid understanding of Israeli history and current events, while many others were completely new to the culture and just looking for an approachable angle.

Whatever the cause, the club spawned a similar chapter when founder Herschel Colbert arrived in Santa Barbara. While not the film major or film buff he is often thought to be, Herschel took a liking to the window into daily life that films can bring and the healthy environment that UCSB fosters for debate and the Middle East. He wanted to show fellow students "the real Israel" that he lived in, not the one spoken of by both news media and university professors.

Israeli Palestinian Film Club joined forces with several on-campus organizations and departments in Spring quarter 2007 to bring to UCSB the world's first and only festival dedicated to both Israeli and Palestinian cinema. The first festival spanned an entire quarter and had highlights of the composer and ensemble of the film West Bank Story and a powerful visit by director Eytan Fox and his film Walk on Water. Now planned and run by a student committee, the festival enters its third year and we are determined to make it even better.

We are now a collaboration between the following groups: American Students for Israel, Amnesty International, Lebanese Club, The Muslim Student Association, Persian Student Group, Santa Barbara Hillel, Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for Understanding the Middle East.

We're not going to lecture you, though.  We're going to give you a film experience that you're just not going to have in a multiplex.

Hope to see you in Santa Barbara.  Our site has directions and more information.  Come early on film days and enjoy the wonderful ambience of Santa Barbara.  Springtime is truly spectacular in our wonderful town and campus.

At Least They Spelled My Name Right...

Google sent me an alert this morning that my name was in the New York Times.  It's an article called "World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America" which pretty much explains the gist of the whole thing.  The author, Tim Arango, had called me up a few months ago to talk about such matters, based on the fact that I was chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences when 9/11 hit.  He was interested in the fact that I'd attended those high-level Hollywood meetings that were called by Karl Rove in the immediate blow-back from the attacks. 

I'm not a big Karl Rove fan but, at the time, there was nothing insidious about the meetings.  After 9/11, everybody wanted to talk about what they could do to help.  Hollywood knows how to communicate and a lot of people out here were wondering if there was a piece of that in a solution.

In any case, here's my bit from the article:

Bryce Zabel, a television producer who was chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the time and a participant in the 2001 meetings with the White House, argued then that the United States needed to regard itself like a consumer brand.

“Products like Coca-Cola are far more effectively branded around the globe than the United States itself,” he wrote in a memo that was circulated around Hollywood. “The American entertainment and communications industry has the technological and creative expertise to improve relations between our country and the rest of the world."

It seems like a perfectly fine quote, I think, except for the context which may cause some people to think I was advocating the dreaded "P" word, or propaganda.  So, for the record, I most emphatically was not doing that.

My point then, and now, is simply that while every freaking corporate enterprise in the entire damn world spends time, money and effort on their "brand," the United States of America, arguably one of the potentially strongest brands on the planet, acts as if it's an irrelevant concept for us.

Personally, I think we have taken a massive step forward in "re-branding" America by our election of Barack Obama.  Let's hope so.

READY TO BELIEVE: Free MP3 of Obama Fight Song!

Last January, while we were still on strike as members of the Writers Guild of America, my wife Jackie and I sat down in a Los Angeles coffee shop with our good friend, musician Cherish Alexander.

Before the coffee was cold, we decided, improbably given the time frame -- as a couple of striking screenwriters and a singer-composer -- to write, produce and distribute the song you'll soon hear.  It happened over a five day period and we released it immediately before the California primary.

So far, "Ready to Believe" has cumulatively had its video versions viewed close to 100,000 times on YouTube.  Plus, it's available on iTunes.  You, however, don't have to buy it in the closing days of the 2008 campaign.  We want you to download it for free and to send it to your friends.

It was written to stand-up for Barack to the Clinton campaign's charges claiming he wasn't ready for the presidency.  We find that the need for this song is as solidly right-on today as it was last February (only Clinton is on the team now and the argument's being made by John McCain).  It needed rebuttal then, and it needs rebuttal now. 

Please give it a listen.  Click the link below to just hear it.  Otherwise,right-click to actually... we'll say it again... download "Ready to Believe" for free.  Again, you have our express permission to download it and to give it away. 

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Song.mp3

Some have asked for a PDF of the actual lyrics.  Here you are:

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Lyrics.pdf

Here's the You Tube version:

Please also visit the web-page of singer-composer Cherish Alexander (http://www.cherishalexander.com/ready_to_believe/) where all the goodies are also available.  She and fellow producer Damian Valentine did an awesome job with this project as you can hear for yourself.

We know the hour is late but if you support Barack Obama, we'd urge you to join us and expose as many people as you can to this song.  Especially Obama volunteers.  We've received a good deal of email from campaign workers who thought it was like an anthemic "fight song" for the cause.  That's certainly what we intended it to be.

Remember to vote.  Even if the polls say he's ahead, you have to vote.  Take nothing for granted. 

Still fired up and ready-to-go for Obama!

Cherish Alexander, Jackie Zabel, Bryce Zabel

Movie Smackdown Comix presents... THE 9/11 FILMS

Two films about 9/11 were released in 2006 on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack.

To read the full review, go to United 93 -vs- World Trade Center.  A reader's poll has just gone up, too, so please do express your own opinion.

MOVIE SMACKDOWN! - Two Reviews... One Film... No Holds Barred!

Review and Comix by Bryce Zabel.

The Bigger the Lie...

My friend, Jay Amicarella, sent this out on September 11. Prepare to be infuriated. He writes:

I've been stewing about this off and on for a couple weeks. My incredibly social daughter has friends at all the schools around here, and she and a guy she pals with met a pair of exchange students staying at a friend's house -- one young guy from Lebanon, another from Afghanistan.  She brought them home one night with some other kids, and I liked them right off, so polite, but also funny and very intelligent.

She met them again a week or so later, when a bunch of the kids got together at another friend's house to hang and watch the movie "Borat." The film prompted one of the exchange students to remark that the Jews are responsible for 9/11.  The other exchanger calmly agreed, like it was common knowledge. The U.S. kids were shocked into silence, until someone asked "how?" The exchange students explained how the World Trade Center employs over 3,000 Jews and, on the morning of 9/11, every single one of them called in sick. 

Naturally, this raised a rather brisk discussion, as my daughter tells it, but the exchange kids stuck to their guns, amused at how little American kids know about their own country.  Apparently, this tale is common in the Middle East.  My daughter and I talked about this, and I asked her not to hate them.  She said she didn't; because she still couldn't believe that stuff came out of their mouths.

You would think that 9/11 would be a straightforward story and that if you're going to claim that all 3,000 Jews stayed home and called in sick that there is a burden of proof involved in that claim. And that, 9/11 being one extremely well-reported story by reporters from all over the world, someone would have turned up the evidence for that one. It's not that hard to check out if it really happened, right?

I'd like to hear them explain how this conspiracy worked. Apparently it must have been set up ahead of time, right, so these 3,000 people would know to stay home. And yet no one has talked in all this time. That's JFK times 100 as far as cover-ups must go.

I guess when you want to believe in hate, you don't need evidence and you get to reverse the burden of proof and smugly assume that it is up to someone else to disprove every crazy thought you've had.

In my opinion, these smug "exchange" students  and their ridiculous anti-Semitism can be exchanged back to where they came from, the sooner the better. And these were the "polite" ones...

Try to Remember (That Kind of September)

It's Tuesday, September 11th again. This is the first anniversary of that day that has fallen, like the original, on a Tuesday. So, let's take a moment and remember that 2,974 died that day. Let's never forget them or the families and friends who have felt their loss every day since.

So much has happened since that awful September morning, but those images are seared into our brains. I had saved these into my computer back then and they rock me back on my heels as much today as then, maybe even more so.

Where were you? Do you remember how you felt? I think this is the ultimate "where were you day?" There are only a few others that get close: JFK's assassination for my generation, Pearl Harbor for my parents. In the positive memory category, there's the Moon Landing. Somewhere below all of these -- because they were less universal -- you have the O.J. verdict and the John Lennon murder.

I was on a morning walk/jog with my friend Zach. We go out early, around 6:00a, P.S.T. I remember when we started that Zach has driven to my place that day and he'd just heard something on the news about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. But what he'd heard was that it was a light plane, some kind of macabre accident. We shrugged it off and headed out.

About forty minutes later, we were on our way up the hill that leads to my house and my wife raced our car up. She said that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, that it was a big one. She usually doesn't give orders. This time she said, "Get in the car." We did.

Watching the news was awful. When somebody mentioned that people were jumping out of the Towers it seemed impossible. I remember literally shivering at that news. Jumping out of the World Trade Center! Jesus...

I simply was not prepared when the first Tower went down. Buildings don't fall down unless we dynamite them. This was impossible. Seeing the people running, covered in the white dust. It wasn't long before the second one came down. It felt like Armageddon. A memory that strikes me as completely odd and inappropriate now is that the school which our kids attended did not cancel classes but still asked that the kids come in. So we got our kids in, they watched TV in the classrooms until the first tower fell down and then we just went and got them and brought them home. Then we all watched TV together. My kids were pretty young and I don't think they quite got it or, if they did, they didn't want to think about it. I remember them giving my wife and me grief about "obsessing" about it. Even today, they don't seem disposed to talk at length about it.

I'll just say this straight out. When I saw what had happened, I didn't for a second think it was anything except something that had been masterminded by Islamic terrorists. I just knew. It was obvious. I also knew we were at war.

Nobody had to tell me this was like Pearl Harbor. We knew. But it was worse. It was on American soil and it was aimed specifically against innocent civilians.

Then the Pentagon got hit, too. And there was the news about United 93. When it crashed, my mind told me that we'd had to shoot it down. The true story of the heroism of the passengers wasn't obvious right away.

It was a terrible, awful, unforgettable day. Americans may disagree on the best method for fighting terrorism, but make no mistake we have to fight it. The kind of people who did this haven't given up. They're planning the next one, and they want it to be even bigger and bloodier. Just listen to what Osama (or Usama) has to say in his latest video postcard. Given the scope of 9/11, you can only imagine the nightmare that he and his ilk are contemplating. It's a hard thing to accept but there are people in the world who simply want to see you and your family dead.

Please leave your own memories in the comment section. It's all way too important to forget and, with five years, maybe you have a different perspective now than you did then.

I'm really tired of the partisan bickering that defines the aftermath of this sad event, but for one day, can we all just remember this reality?

2,973 died. Let's never forget that.

{PHOTOS: I saved these at 9/11 and I don't remember where they came from. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can give proper credit to the photographer or news organization.}

For a Movie Smackdown review of "World Trade Center" versus "United 93," please CLICK HERE.