Introduction

                                     Welcome to Stuart Fernie’s Blog

Please scroll down or find on the right links to articles, pages of reflections on films and books, and occasional pieces of short fiction.

Articles include advice and questions to assist in the writing of essays about films, thoughts on "Three Days of the Condor", "Spotlight", "Good Night and Good Luck", "The Count of Monte Cristo" (French version, 2024), "Midnight Express", Jason Bourne, Advocating Arts and Humanities, "Heaven's Gate", "Civil War", "The Ghost and Mrs Muir", "Ad Astra", Duality in 19th century literature, "Living", "Hell in the Pacific", "Point Blank", "Vera Cruz", "Dr Strange in the Multiverse", my interpretation of "Il faut cultiver notre jardin", "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources", "Drive my car", "The Batman", the place of acting in society, thoughts about religion and fate, "The Banshees of Inisherin", "Full Metal Jacket", "The Bishop's Wife", "Moliere", "Les Fleurs du Mal", "Soylent Green", "Bad Day at Black Rock", "The First Great Train Robbery", The Dreyfus Affair, "Persona", "The Seventh Seal", "A Clockwork Orange", "Night Moves", "Lonely are the Brave", "In the heat of the night", "The League of Gentlemen" (1960), thoughts on the nature of film noir, "Star Trek", "Seven Days in May", "Dead Poets Society", "Good Will Hunting", "Callan", "The Hill", "Cool Hand Luke", "The Hustler", "Road to Perdition", "The Verdict", "Three Colour Trilogy", "Jojo Rabbit", "Jeremiah Johnson", "Collateral", "Joker", "Barry Lyndon", "The Bridge at Remagen", "Le Mans '66 (Ford v Ferrari)", Charles Foster Kane ("Citizen Kane"), "The Deer Hunter", "Highlander", "No Country for Old Men", "Gattaca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938), "Apocalypse Now", "Spartacus", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Long Good Friday", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", "The Third Man", "Finding Forrester", "The Outlaw Josey Wales", "Untouchable" (2011),"Unforgiven", "The Manchurian Candidate", "The Wild Bunch", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Papillon" (1973), "Public Eye", "Existentialism in society today", "Seven Samurai", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Don Quixote", "We're No Angels", "The African Queen", "Babette's Feast", "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Dunkirk", “Dances With Wolves”, “Inherit The Wind” and “The Prisoner”. 

A link to my YouTube channel with video presentations of a number of my pages.

After I retired from teaching, I thought I’d write my memoirs, “What have I done?”, and present them online. Please find links to these memoirs, some French support pages and reflections on "Les Miserables" below.

I can be contacted through the comments sections or at stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk

Other blogs available:

French Support Pages

Discussion of “Les Misérables”

Tales of teaching – memoirs of a former French teacher

All intellectual property rights reserved

Brief reflections on Sidney Pollack’s “Three Days of the Condor”

 

Brief reflections on themes and characters in “Three Days of the Condor”

Directed by Sidney Pollack

Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr and David Rayfiel

Based on a novel by James Grady

Starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow

 

Entertaining, thought-provoking and occasionally humorous, “Three Days of the Condor” is a spy story that reflects the disbelief, disillusion and moral morass that existed in the wake of the Watergate revelations, as the film focuses on the enforced rapid moral maturation and loss of trusting innocence of principal character Joe Turner.

Among other themes, the film explores the relationship between the individual and the State, and the lengths to which the State will go in the name of preserving and protecting its interests, even showing willing to sacrifice a few individuals for the perceived overall benefit of the State. Beneath a façade of co-operation, humanity and diplomacy, the powers that be are ready to protect their interests using whatever unscrupulous and vicious methods are necessary.

Of course, when exposed to such underhand and potentially brutal tactics, innocent people may be transformed or mutated by the situation they face as they fight for survival.

Joe Turner is relatively innocent and happy-go-lucky. He is content to work for the C.I.A. in the American Literary and Historical Society where he indulges his imagination and plays a game of seeking plots, messages, strategies, codes or intrigues in modern literature that might reflect government policies or inspire them. He does not take his work too seriously and is happy and willing to pander to the C.I.A.’s almost whimsical search, as he sees it, for information and intelligence, and his attitude may well reflect the trusting faith of the American people in its political and security organisations prior to Watergate.

The sole survivor, by pure luck and circumstance, of a merciless and brutal attack on his workplace, Joe soon learns to suspend trust and question everything and everyone. His loss of confidence in colleagues and surroundings combined with his determination to survive in the face of extreme danger transform or perhaps even corrupt him to some degree, causing him to abduct and abuse another innocent, Kathy, whose relatively humdrum life is suddenly modified by danger and excitement.

The lives and outlooks of these two “innocents” are changed forever by these challenging events. As they fight for their lives, a contagious amorality and questioning of dull social convention add purpose, excitement and a savouring of life to their existence. The façade of civilisation has slipped and they have been exposed to an underlying reality of amorality where people in positions of authority act as they see fit to advance or protect whatever position they adhere to, and where people like them do what they must to outwit their pursuers and survive.

There is a suggestion that there are secretive and discrete layers of government and security, and responsibility and accountability seem to take second place to the exercise of power, authority and personal perception. It appears that one may lose perspective and abuse authority if actions are not overseen or restricted by legality or morality, often at the expense of others’ possessions, freedom or even their lives.

Joubert is perhaps the ultimate example of adaptability to this morally fluid situation. He takes pride in the standard of his work as an assassin but has learned not to question or doubt the motives of those who pay him. He recognises no moral hierarchy and he simply does what he must do to survive and be paid. He even suggests that Joe could do worse than follow his example since, having seen the reality behind the façade, he can never return to “normality”.

In the end, however, Joe puts his trust in humanity, common decency and the press. He does not believe the people or the government would sanction possible military intervention in another nation to ensure access to precious resources (a situation that may resonate with observers of modern political reality), and he threatens to expose the plan he has uncovered inadvertently and cause huge embarrassment by having his account of events printed in a newspaper.

However, this stand for principle in what is essentially a modern film noir is challenged as Joe is faced with two questions; will the press show the independence of spirit and integrity necessary to print his story, and will a relatively apathetic and self-centred public put legality and morality above its own comfort and interests? Interesting questions that cast doubt on the tenets of our civilisation and which underline the film noir roots of our film and it is left largely to the audience to consider which direction events would take…

In interviews, Sidney Pollack and Robert Redford claimed they only wanted to make a spy thriller and they objected to various readings of their work but the storyline and characterisations invite thought-provoking interpretation and I have to say I think they were being somewhat disingenuous in their protests.

My thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)

 

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Brief reflections on themes and characters in “Spotlight”

 

Brief reflections on themes and characters in “Spotlight” (2015)

Directed by Tom McCarthy

Written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams,

Liv Schreiber, Stanley Tucci et al.

 

Our film takes the form of a journalistic procedural and the story itself is the star. Characters are well defined and are broadened in the course of the film but they always serve the development of the story. We witness the painstaking research and investigation required to uncover the truth behind sexual offences committed by priests in the Boston area in the early 2000s, but also the systematic efforts to ignore the roots of these crimes and to protect priests and the Catholic Church from full disclosure.

The film is constructed in much the same way as a good newspaper article, offering various points of view which are balanced to some degree though we are never in any doubt as to which standpoint will win out.

The extent of the abuse is gradually revealed to both the journalists and the audience, growing from an apparently isolated case to a virtual pandemic involving some 87 priests in Boston alone, with the suggestion that this is a recognised global phenomenon affecting some 6% of the priesthood.

It becomes clear that the Catholic Church is aware of the problem but has failed to take definitive or preventative action, opting to transfer those priests involved rather than dismiss them, enabling them to continue their practices in other dioceses. Each case is handled discreetly in order to protect the priests involved and to protect the reputation and standing of the Church in the community, with minimal compensation offered and use of emotional blackmail and false assurances to ensure families’ silence.

Thus, further victims are sacrificed on the altar of Church protection and social “responsibility”, but this seems to be a price devotees of the Church are willing to allow others to pay for the sake of social position and standing as they turn what is effectively a blind but knowing eye on these wretched goings-on, even attempting to gently pressure our journalists to abandon the piece for the greater good of the community.

We are privy to emotional and harrowing accounts of how innocent youths are inveigled into situations that left them open to abuse, both physical and emotional, and which left psychological scars and long-term effects on self-respect, relationships and general outlooks as they felt shame, embarrassment and guilt.

We even gain some insight into the minds of the abusers through a brief interview with one of the abusive priests, a seemingly harmless and forthright old man who appears to recognise no accountability for his actions, vaguely dissociating himself from guilt and responsibility while claiming his abuse of innocents gave him no pleasure. This is not developed but perhaps he and the others rationalised their position while failing to perceive their victims as feeling human beings who would be traumatised by their violation of them.

The journalists are methodical, painstaking and professional but they are also emotionally affected by the facts and deeds they uncover. They are all too aware of the potential consequences for the Church and community as pressure is brought to bear in the form of emotional blackmail, haughty refusal to co-operate, probable family conflicts and vague threats concerning social standing and job security, but all are determined to seek justice for those abused in the past and also in the present since ineffective official action has resulted in continued abuse that is going unchecked.

Systems of checks and balances in society exist to ensure standards and to protect against abuse of any kind. However, if individuals, groups and society at large are willing to ignore or turn a blind eye to abuse, amounting to the betrayal of those abused, we require an external or objective source of investigation interested in truth and if ever there was a film that justified the existence of quality journalism as a tool to ensure accountability in society, this is it.

We assume a level of decorum and propriety in society, so we are shocked and dismayed as, through the eyes of our high-minded and principled journalists, we discover the nature and extent of essentially unchecked abuse as it is gradually and cleverly unveiled. The strength of the film is certainly in the performances but also, and more importantly, in the measured divulgence of the facts and magnitude of the case which ensure audience engagement and emotional investment.

 

My thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk )

 

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Brief reflections on “Good Night and Good Luck”

 

Brief reflections on themes and characters in

“Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005)

Directed by George Clooney

Written by Grant Heslov and George Clooney

Starring David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr.,

Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella et al.

 

Our film touches on themes such as friendship, relationships in the 1950s workplace, pressures (financial and political) involved in operating a television channel, the potential effects of maintained criticism based on vindictive character assassination rather than reasoned disagreement, and the place of television as a tool for informing the watching public and even inspiring it to think, rather than simply produce bland entertainment. However, at its core, this is the story of the discord between respected TV journalist and presenter Ed Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy who led the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

Ed Murrow and his small team of journalists present fact-based, coherent programmes of compassionate integrity that investigate and challenge topics of social and political interest.

In one broadcast, they challenge the precision, veracity and methods of Senator McCarthy who responds by levelling various defamatory accusations at Murrow rather than respond to the points made in the offending programme. Murrow is able to refute each point made by McCarthy and in so doing reveals and highlights McCarthy’s tactic of using lies, insinuation and baseless accusations, offering no proof or evidence to support his assertions, as he depends on the creation of anxiety and fear, and appeals to a sense of national pride in order to gain political influence.

With heartfelt, convincing performances and carefully constructed script and direction, George Clooney delivers an intelligent plea for integrity, principle and standards in public life and politics. As I write this, I hear Mr Clooney has adapted his film for a theatrical run on Broadway. Perhaps he feels the themes and purpose of his film remain as relevant now as they were in the 1950s…

My thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)

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