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"The War" (A Ken Burns Film) Part 2 of 4; Now airing 7PM Central 9-24-07
pbs.org ^ | undated | PBS staff

Posted on 09/24/2007 5:05:53 PM PDT by VOA

see link above...
This is an announcement of the airing of part 2 (of 4?) of
Ken Burns "documentary" on WWII.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: kenburns; pbs; politicalcorrectness; thewar; wwii
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To: biscuit jane
An issue of Time Magazine in 1942 told the story of a marine in Guadalcanal who was frustrated that he had never shot a Japanese soldier. His obliging sergeant placed him on picket duty at night, and told him -- if he heard a noise -- to yell "To hell with Hirohito." This would flush the Japanese soldier, and the marine could shoot him.

After sunrise, the sergeant checked with the marine to see if he had his first kill. The marine shook his head no. "Well, did you do what I said?" "Yes sarge, I sure did. When I heard a noise, I yelled 'To hell with Hirohito.'"

"Well," asked the sergeant, "what happened next?" The marine answered "A Japanese soldier jumped up and yelled 'to hell with Roosevelt!"

"Did you shoot him?" asked the sergeant. No, replied the marine. "Why not?" "I couldn't shoot a fellow Republican!"

61 posted on 09/24/2007 7:50:15 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
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To: Colonel_Flagg

US communists led strikes of US aircraft factories to prevent aircraft from being manufactured to send to Britain lend lease.


62 posted on 09/24/2007 7:56:11 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
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To: VOA

Starting now...


63 posted on 09/24/2007 8:03:49 PM PDT by Bean Counter (Stout Hearts...)
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To: VOA

Watching it now.


64 posted on 09/24/2007 8:06:51 PM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM .53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart, there is no GOD.)
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To: VOA; Millee; Allegra; carlr; Maximus of Texas; EX52D; StephenTX; wallcrawlr; Xenalyte; Tatze; ...
Re: he was a talented writer... the screenplays for Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Spartacus (1960), and Exodus (1960).

You have to realize each and every human being has goodness and evil within them. Some people like Hitler, Stalin and Pot Pol had very little goodness and lots of evil in them.

Personally, I believe the Clintons and most Democrats are inching way too close to Adolf and Uncle Joe's side of the scale, but on Dalton Trumbo, I'd give him a pass.

Even being a failed screenwriter (i.e. unsold - My head is bloodied but unbowed in butting it against the high, strong Hollywood wall against Good Republican screenwriters) of the late 1960s through the late 1990s, I can still recognize good from bad.

A screenplay, to those not in the know, is like blueprints to a builder for a filmmaker. Granted a bad director or producer or both can take a good screenplay and make a horrible film out of it, but very, very rarely, can anyone take a bad screenplay and make a decent film out of it.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Spartacus, and Exodus are excellent screenplays that became excellent films. I can still watch them today and see how well they were put together. They have a beginning, a middle and an end with wonderful characters that the audience cares about.

The highest compliment I could give them is I wished I had written them!

Well, my version of Screen-writing 101 aside, I do not lose any sleep over Dalton Trumbo's past as a Communist screenwriter. He never cause anyone to die needlessly in Mogadishu, never had sex with a White House intern and lied about it to the nation and a grand jury, neither did Trumbo ever lie about the Rose Law Firm's billing records, the White House Travel Office firings nor Vince Foster death to name but just a few of many, many other sins.

In the context of Ken Burns TV Documentary "The War," Thumbo's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo will forever be one of the best films made during the Second World War. I have not seen Burns work, but I am taping it for a later viewing.

Perhaps I will have bone to pick then...

BTW At Dalton Trumbo's IMDb Page one can look at the many, many IMHO excellent films he wrote including A Guy Named Joe, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Roman Holiday, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Cowboy, Lonely Are the Brave and Hawaii.

65 posted on 09/24/2007 8:30:17 PM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: Liberty Valance

OK, I give up.

I’ve done due diligence on Google and over at
http://www.mustangsmustangs.com
using the nose-art name and names on the plane
(as best I can see them).

So please, give up the story behind the picture.

Thanks in advance!


66 posted on 09/24/2007 8:31:12 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Bender2

“I do not lose any sleep over Dalton Trumbo’s past as a Communist screenwriter.”

I don’t lose any sleep over him as a screenwriter. He beats the pants
off 99% of the dreadful drivel from Hollywood.

But I did think he was an Exhibit A about the Communists in America that
sometimes showed their real allegiance was to Communism/USSR.

And I say this with understanding that when The Great Depression was
going strong, flirting with Communism as an alternative to capitalism
wasn’t such a wild idea.

The first time I heard about Trumbo “Naming names” to the FBI...
that was just too rich to not be noted in the historical records.
I guess he hoped the “useful idiots” at the FBI would put the smack-down
on all the people he named...even if most were probably just pacifists...
not Fascist agents.
This would be the same guy that would curse other people that
“named names” either due to patriotism to the USA or court order.

And to have Trumbo’s memorial fountain at the U. of Colorado in
the People’s Republic of Boulder and (until recently?) the home of Ward Churchill...
“they couldn’t make this stuff up in Hollywood”.


67 posted on 09/24/2007 8:47:06 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

LOL. Thought somebody would like that one. A friend of the family. I shouldn’t say more here.


68 posted on 09/24/2007 8:51:35 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: VOA

MY brother was in the 303 Bomb Group aka The Hells Angels. Made 17 missions before spending time in Stalag III. He is 85 and living in FResno...


69 posted on 09/24/2007 9:02:43 PM PDT by tubebender (My first great grandson is a Miniature Schnauzer...)
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To: VOA

First two episodes were about how badly things were going in ‘42 and ‘43 - surprising we didn;t have hoards in the street demanding that we negotiate with Hitler et al.......


70 posted on 09/24/2007 9:35:07 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Intolerant in NJ
Ken Burns wasn’t born yet or there would have been...
71 posted on 09/24/2007 9:37:09 PM PDT by tubebender (My first great grandson is a Miniature Schnauzer...)
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To: Intolerant in NJ

“...surprising we didn;t have hoards in the street demanding that
we negotiate with Hitler et al.......”

Yep, it is suprising, given that even in these days of continued LUXURY
here at home, and an all-volunteer military...
we have discontents on the streets when there’s just about zero risk
of them being put into service, etc.

IIRC, one documentary talked about how popular the anti-interventionist
“America First Committee” was...
and that it essentially VANISHED within days after Pearl Harbor.
Those were different times.


72 posted on 09/24/2007 9:45:59 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Liberty Valance

“A friend of the family. I shouldn’t say more here.”

Understood.

Hope he made it home after VE/VJ days.
The fellow certainly has that “happy hunter” look about him!


73 posted on 09/24/2007 9:48:27 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA
"The fellow certainly has that “happy hunter” look about him!"



Indeed. Here he is some years later in North Africa ...
74 posted on 09/24/2007 10:48:27 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Man50D; mware

Mine was in the South Pacific. Great men.


75 posted on 09/25/2007 4:56:08 AM PDT by Chanticleer (I want God, I want Poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.)
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To: VOA
What I find disturbing is that the same media that speaks of past wars in such reverential terms has nothing but disgust for the supporters of todays war w/ an equally dangerous enemy.

The hypocracy would choke a maggot!

76 posted on 09/25/2007 4:59:12 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: Chanticleer
One of my FRiends was a corpman during WW2. He was on the landing at Tarawa.

I asked him once why when he came home he became a farmer, instead of going into the medical profession.

He told me he had seen his full of blood and guts to last his whole life time.

77 posted on 09/25/2007 5:00:57 AM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: Liberty Valance

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he strains his back posing for a picture.


78 posted on 09/25/2007 5:08:05 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0 (Reunite Gondwanaland!)
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To: VOA
Just found the photo of my FRiends Uncle John McGuire. He lived in Nutley, NJ until his death.

He is the trooper wearing the number 23 on his chest.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

79 posted on 09/25/2007 5:08:40 AM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: mware
Really? My dad was a corpsman, too! He was in the South Pacific in WWII (Malaria Control Unit Skeeter Beaters among other things), and then he was on a hospital ship in Korea.

He hated M*A*S*H because it was nothing like his experience. When he was in Korea, they often went weeks without ever going topside. Sixteen hour days in surgery. But they did amazing things.

Have you ever read Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal's commendation? It's very moving. Here's a portion.

"Out of every 100 men of the United States Navy and Marine Corps who were wounded in World War II, 97 recovered. That is a record not equaled anywhere, anytime.

Every individual, who was thus saved from death, owes an everlasting debt to the Navy's Hospital Corps. The Navy is indebted to the corps. The entire nation is its debtor for thousands of citizens are living normal, constructive, happy and productive lives who, but for the skill and toil of the Hospital Corps, might be dead or disheartened by crippling invalidism. So, to the 200,000 men and women of the Hospital Corps, I say on behalf of the United States Navy:

WELL DONE. WELL DONE, INDEED!

80 posted on 09/25/2007 5:12:09 AM PDT by Chanticleer (I want God, I want Poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.)
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