Bobby...

He never had the chance to fulfill his own possibilities, which is why his memory haunts so many of us now. -- Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., from the foward of his biography of Robert F. Kennedy, "Robert Kennedy and His Times."


If anyone who is reading this blog plans to go see a movie over this holiday season, I would highly encourage you to go see Bobby.

Bobby depicts life in the Ambassador Hotel on the day that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated there. The movie itself does not primarily follow the story of Bobby Kennedy that day, rather it focuses upon a series of fictional characters who were in the hotel that day. In so doing, it depicts the time and the feeling of the last moments of the 1968 Kennedy Campaign, and the first moments of America afterwards.

This is a time of America that I know less about than most others. And I don't know that I've ever spent time thinking about how significant a moment the assassination of Bobby Kennedy was in American history. Of course, I'd always lumped his death into the trifecta of 60's assassinations, along with his brother John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But I have always felt those others were more "important." This movie made me re-think that.

To be fair, this movie is not a work of history - but fiction. The characters the film follows through the day are creations used to tell a broader story. But that story is significant, and this movie is a useful tool to tell it. The movie is unashamedly emotional - even before the assassination scene. It is unapologetically "pro-Kennedy" - when Kennedy is seen in the film it is in old news footage and his spoken word through various speeches. When the film is not using 60's footage, often the characters speak of "Bobby" in reverent and idealistic tones. These aspects are used to capture a feeling of a moment in time, a moment in American history that I was captivated by.

When Bobby Kennedy died, so did American optimism. I had never comprehended that before. It was a moment of utter change in the history of our nation - never since have we as a nation had a sense that something was coming that was better, that was more, that was deeper. That we are on the verge of the next American evolution. America doesn't feel these things anymore. Historian Michael Beschloss has said that you can almost date the death of liberalism in this country to the events of mid-1968. I think you can date the end of American optimism to the same date.

We used to feel such optimism.

America had Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Marshall that gave us a united, free, representative government. Such as the world had never seen before.

America had Lincoln, who decided to keep his still-new nation united, and to free men and women held in the bondage of slavery.

America had Teddy Roosevelt who busted trusts and represented a new progressivism.

America had Franklin Roosevelt who told us all we had to fear was fear itself, led us through the most difficult economic trial our nation has faced, and through one of the most difficult international conflict the world has faced.

Then America had John Kennedy - for a very short time - who was showing us to ask not what our country can do for us, but rather what we can do for our country. But he was taken. We had Martin Luther King, Jr. - also for a very short time - who showed that character, integrity, and non-violence can lead to fundamental social change. Then he was taken.

And we could have had Bobby Kennedy, who was intently focused upon our inequities - racial inequities, financial inequities, etc. And, finally, Bobby was taken too.

That ended it. American optimism. It hasn't been the same since them. Since then we've had the power-hunger of Nixon, the trickle-down excess of Reagan, and the neoconservatism of the second Bush.

Within 30 minutes of this film's opening, I realized that was the story - the death of American optimism that accompanied the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Such a thought had never occurred to me before, but it certainly struck me while watching this film.

That's why - even though the film overtly pulls emotional strings, and is no work of history - Bobby is absolutely worth seeing. Because it gives a glipse of how important a day that was in American history - through the impressions delivered by these characters.


My wife and I watched this film in Memphis, TN. After being so touched by the film, we drove by the Lorraine Hotel - the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It just seemed to make sense. These senseless deaths - more than senseless, history-changing - took so much from what America could have been. At least it seems that way. It is a foolish conceit to ask "what might have been" questions about history. Whatever I perceive as "might have been" wasn't - and isn't. The question we should ask is not "what might have been." The questions each of us should ask is - Are we continuing the legacy? Are we standing for the same things these men stood for? Are we resisting inequity - promoting equality. Resisting violence - promoting peace? Are these the things we stand for?

We have to be willing to commit to create the things we wish had been. We - collectively - have to return optimism to America again. Sure, it takes great leaders to do that - but it also takes everyday people refusing to accept leaders who don't.

America is still full of possibilities. It's our responsibility to fulfill them.

It's not as bad a slump as it appears...

...it's worse. The Vanishing Box Office: A terminal condition

Slate columnist Edward Jay Epstein has more comments related to the 19th straight weekend of declining box office receipts (year over year). And this is during a stretch when you had the final Star Wars release, the reemergence of the Batman franchise, and Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise pairing up for a remake of War of the Worlds. Those are big time summer blockbusters, yet the industry is in a historically long slide.

Or maybe not. Epstein points out at least two interesting facts in this article, one positive and one negative for Hollywood. First, the big boys are doing fine:

Despite the weekly chorus of doom about the decline of the Hollywood box office, the six major studios—Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Disney, Universal, and Sony—actually took in more money from their movies in the first half of 2005 than they did in the same period in 2004. These studios (and their subsidiaries) earned $3.2 billion at the box office from Jan. 1 to June 30 in 2005 as opposed to $2.7 billion the previous year (click here for a table). To be sure, there as a 7 percent decline in overall U.S. ticket receipts, but the loss came mainly at the expense of independent distributors and studioless studios, which account for more than half of the films released in the United States. So, even though fewer Americans went to the movies in 2005, the big studios did not lose out.

Interesting - the majors are making their money, so the dips are hurting the independents more. I would not have thought that...if anything I would have assumed the opposite. But, that does not mean that all is well - the long-term decline is precipitous:

In 1948, when home TV was still a rarity, theaters sold 4.6 billion tickets. By 1958, TV had penetrated most American homes, and theaters sold only 2 billion tickets. The Hollywood studios tried to counter television with widescreen (CinemaScope), noisier (surround sound), and more visually exciting (special effects) movies, but technology did nothing to stem the mass defections. ... Even the much-heralded fantasy bonanzas of Spielberg and Lucas could not halt the decline. By 1988, ticket sales hovered at 1 billion.

So the long-term trend still seems to be away from the "theatre experience" and toward the "home-theatre experience." (Although we have seen some empirical evidence suggesting that those investing in the home-theatre experience are also spending more money at the box office than those who don't.) There can be no doubt that there are many variables that are affecting the declining numbers, but two that simply cannot be ignored are more variety of entertainment options (this article alludes to the correlation between the mass spread of television and the decline of movie-going) and also simply a lower quality of entertainment in the theatres. In any event, the studio's themselves will continue to do fine, because they are still the conduit into the home-theatres as well as the stadium theatres...the question in my mind becomes what happens to the large movie theatre chain corporations?

For more perspective from the Houston Chronicle click here - Rude people, high prices costing movie theaters.

Also, see my previous posts on the movie business:
Home Movies...
Post-Easy Riders and Raging Bulls...
Dumb Money...
Gross Misunderstanding

Home movies...

Following up on my posts here and here about the movie industry...

CNN is reporting on an AP/AOL News poll which shows that most prefer to watch movies at home.

According to the article:

Hollywood is in the midst of its longest box-office slump in 20 years, and 2005 is shaping up as the worst year for movie attendance in nearly a decade, if theater business continues at the same lackluster rate.
While 73 percent said they preferred staying home to watch movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view, 22 percent said they would rather see them at a movie theater, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press and AOL News by Ipsos.

But it also included this little tidbit:

But the poll found that people who use DVDs, watch pay-per-view movies on cable, download movies from the Internet and play computer games actually go to movies in theaters more than people at the same income levels who don't use those technologies. That suggests the technology may be complementing rather than competing with theatergoing.

If that is indeed the case, then boxoffice woes are not due to the emergence of DVDs and home theatre alternatives...so is it a symptom of a bigger problem? Here's one thought - movies these days are just bad. Okay, disclaimer: I don't get to the theatre very often anymore. Before my son came along, my wife and I would probably average a movie a week, maybe a shade under. But I imagine we were seeing 40 to 50 movies a year in the theatre. Now...I'd guess it's down to about 4 or 5 per year. So, when we go we are highly selective. I say all that to admit that I'm not as familiar with the population of films out there as I was several years ago. Still, let's take a look at a list of films playing at one prominant theatre here in Houston this weekend:

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D - never heard of this
Batman Begins - I would really like to see this
Cinderella Man - no desire
Crash - heard positive things about this
High Tension - never heard of this
The Honeymooners - no desire
Howl's Moving Castle - from the maker of Spirited Away (still no desire)
The Longest Yard - no desire
Lords of Dogtown - no desire
Madagascar - we're considering taking Noah to see this
Monster-in-Law - no desire
Mr. & Mrs. Smith - no desire
The Perfect Man - never heard of this
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - no desire
Star Wars III - saw it, not impressed

Yawn...and this is the middle of the blockbuster summer movie season. Of the 15 playing this weekend, a grand total of one movie I really want to see (Batman Begins), one I'm intrigued by (Crash) and one I'd see for my son (Madagascar) (also one I saw and was very disappointed in). There are many variables affecting the slide of Hollywood, but the key is that they are making putrid movies.

I think it's time for another New Hollywood. After my post here on Wednesday, I went out and bought Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. I think there are some reasonable comparisons between the Hollywood of the mid-60s and today...along with many differences. But it's time that good film went mainstream again. One of the big differences between those days and today is the relatively thriving independent movie scene, there are good pictures out there - unfortunately you just have to go hunt for them. They are not at your neighborhood megaplex. This is why when my wife and I do head out to the movies these days, as often as not we skip the megaplex and head to the indie theatre - non-stadium seating and all, it's still a higher quality experience. It's time that someone yank the studios from their slumber and actually start making good movies again, or the box office numbers are going to continue to plummet.

Dumb Money...

Following up on my post here, Slate has another interesting article on the economics of Hollywood.

The point of the article, once again, is the disconnect between where the Hollywood studios are spending their money, and where their revenue streams are (increasingly) coming from. The digital era has completely altered where movies actually make their money, and what demographic it is that is really the driving force these days. But...the studio's seem stuck in pretty much the same 'let's-over-advertise-to-teenagers' rut its been in for decades now...even as it becomes clearer that the advertising carries less of a return, and the demographics of the revenues have changed from teens marching to the theatres, to adults expanding a DVD library.

I thought this was especially intersting:

Does Hollywood need to remain so out of synch with reality? At present, the studio marketing arms have become exceedingly efficient at stampeding weekly herds of teens to multiplexes and producing impressive numbers. But if that amazing trick turns out to be not worth its average $34.8 million price tag, studios will have to consider different strategies. The most obvious one would be to eliminate the long interval between a film's opening and its release on DVD. Also, if the studios aimed at the much larger and more profitable DVD audience, they would not need to spend so much on the teen herd.

Gross Misunderstanding

Really good article yesterday from Slate about the irrelevance of box-office grosses to the studios.

The piece is interesting overall - detailing the reasons why the box office is not as imporant as a judge of much anything these days - but it's most revealing portions was the discussion of how home entertainment has completely changed Hollywood.

Movie theatre ticket sales now make up less than 20 percent of the studios' revenues. Home entertainment provides 82%. In addition - Wal-Mart accounts for more than 33% of the studios' revenues in video and DVD. Wal-Mart is a power player in Hollywood - whodathunkit?

Hollywood is really driven these days not by what we go to see - but what we stay home to see, be it on DVD or TV or pay-per-view. Now, that is different.

The Smartest Guys in the Room...

Maybe it's because it was Houston.

Maybe it's because I'm an accountant.

Maybe it's because I had friends there.

Maybe it's because I bought the stock.

Maybe it's because I only worked a few blocks down the street.

Or, maybe it's because it is the worst story of corporate corruption in history.

Whatever the reason, the story of Enron is compelling. At least, it is to me. And the documentary Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room is VERY compelling.

It's amazing the hubris. It's amazing how quickly the House of Cards fell. And this movie tells that story wonderfully. Toward the beginning, one of the interviewees says something very key - so often the story of Enron is nebulous because its all about complicated structured finance, and tricky accounting and numbers, but in reality, it's a story about people. That is dead on.

This documentary provides intimate details of the rise and fall of Enron, and Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow - much of in their own words. This was a company that was never really doing anything - at least nothing that made money, yet they trotted out record earnings quarter after quarter. The tales of arrogance are alarming and almost unbelieveable.

The stories of Enron around town were unbelieveable. Like I mentioned, I worked not far away, worked in finance and accounting for a big company in Houston - and we would always hear stories floating around about guys 28 years old making multi-million dollar bonuses; about the ultra-competitive culture where over 10% of the employees were laid off every year. Yet I had three friends who left our company to go work over there - because if you made it, you made it big time. And, you were considered best of the best. Enron was the thing. Of course, now we know that it was really nothing. Nothing but smoke and mirrors. Crazy stuff.

One of the best thing this movie does is it shows how it was a whole web of entities responsible. Sure the top guys at Enron conceived and sold the scheme. But auditors signed off; attorneys signed off; analysts signed off; bankers signed off; the government signed off. The list is mind boggling - all the reputable business that turned a blind eye to shocking schemes (like Andy Fastow being the primary partner in partnerships that dealt only with Enron) and malfeasance (like rigging the California power market to cause black-outs which drove the price of electricity to unprecednented levels).

The dean of my law school, Nancy Rappaport, is in one portion of the film where she discusses a telling analogy with a scientific study done in the 50s where ordinary people were found to be willing to inflict pain upon others - pain to the point of death - only because they were told they could. At Enron, these people lied and cheated and stole. Only because they could. Only because they believed no one could stop them.

Sherron Watkins, a key whistle-blower who contributed to the unraveling of the illegal accounting schemes, at one point of the film is addressing what was going on and how they were getting away with it, and she says hauntingly - and it could happen again. Believe me, it certainly could happen again.

I ended my last post with a age-old phrase which fits startlingly here as well:

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

100 Favorite American Movies (1-10)

The Top 10 - I'll give a quick comment to each:

1. Casablanca - I love this movie. I can never get too much of it. There is no flaw to this film and the story is engaging every time you see it. This may have been in the midst of the 'assembly-line studio' era, but I've yet to see its equal.
2. Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder was the greatest American director. This is his masterwork.
3. Graduate, The - What a terrific capture of a young's man's anxiety's about entering 'real life'.
4. Sound of Music, The - The best musical ever made.
5. Godfather, The - Maybe perfect? Maybe the quintessential American movie?
6. North by Northwest - My favorite Hitchcock. I get caught up in this story everytime I see it.
7. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - You either love them or hate them, and I love them, and this is best of the trilogy.
8. Citizen Kane - The Epic Ameican film, a story so big it barely fits on the screen.
9. Dr. Strangelove - Every time I watch I laugh through the whole movie, Sellers and Edwards at thier absolute pinnacle.
10. Annie Hall - The premier Woody Allen. Laughs, New York and a quirky story.

That's my favorite 10 films ever.

100 Favorite American Movies (11-20)

11. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
12. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
13. Some Like it Hot
14. Four Weddings and a Funeral
15. Star Wars: A New Hope
16. Schindler's List
17. To Kill a Mockingbird
18. Saving Private Ryan
19. Apartment, The
20. American Beauty

There's your top 20...

100 Favorite American Movies (21-30)

21. Platoon
22. Titanic
23. Rear Window
24. Great Race, The
25. English Patient, The
26. Forrest Gump
27. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail
28. Gone with the Wind
29. Manhattan
30. Double Indemnity

100 Favorite American Movies (31-40)

31. Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade
32. Breakfast at Tiffany's
33. Cool Hand Luke
34. Wizard of Oz, The
35. Dances With Wolves
36. African Queen, The
37. Princess Bride, The
38. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
39. Chicken Run
40. When Harry Met Sally

100 Favorite American Movies (41-50)

41. Silence of the Lambs, The
42. Pink Panther, The
43. Almost Famous
44. Godfather Part II, The
45. Toy Story
46. Age of Innocence, The
47. Chinatown
48. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
49. Dazed & Confused
50. Sabrina

100 Favorite American Movies (51-60)

51. Lion King, The
52. Midnight Cowboy
53. Rushmore
54. Taxi Driver
55. Best in Show
56. Great Escape, The
57. Aladdin
58. Fargo
59. Field of Dreams
60. Vertigo

Whew...half way there. I think I should clarify - since these are my favorite movies, if I haven't seen it, it's not on the list. Now, I'd say I have an above average interest in film, but I haven't seen nearly all that I should - so one of the big changes in the future of this list will be me viewing older films I'd never seen before who rocket toward the top.

100 Favorite American Movies (61-70)

61. My Fair Lady
62. Way We Were, The
63. Hannah and Her Sisters
64. Operation Petticoat
65. Raging Bull
66. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
67. 2001: A Space Odyssey
68. Birds, The
69. Apocalypse Now
70. Young Sherlock Holmes

100 Favorite American Movies (71-80)

71. Before Sunrise
72. Metropolitan
73. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The
74. Around the World in 80 Days
75. Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone
76. Maltese Falcon, The
77. Clue
78. Jurassic Park
79. Hoosiers
80. JFK

100 Favorite American Movies (81-90)

81. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
82. Rebecca
83. Mary Poppins
84. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
85. Christmas Vacation
86. Slacker
87. Mulholland Dr.
88. Clerks.
89. Oklahoma!
90. Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi

100 Favorite American Movies (91-100)

During 2003, I put together my listing of 100 Favorite American Movies. I am still trying to keep the list reasonably current - although admittedly, Shana and I don't get to the movies nearly as much anymore. Again, this list was put together based on personal preference - I'd tried to say to myself - if you haven't seen a movie in 5 years, 'what movie would you choose to see first'...I'm going to post these in groups of 10...let the critiques begin.


91. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
92. Die Hard: With A Vengeance
93. Pulp Fiction
94. Usual Suspects, The
95. White Christmas
96. Notorious
97. Goldfinger
98. On the Waterfront
99. Sense and Sensibility
100. Twelve Monkeys