Louis, that blurb you quoted sounds like a reference to DEACON KING KONG, McBride's most recent novel -- WHICH IS FABULOUS ....
On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 9:11 AM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > On 10/3/20 8:34 AM, jenorem via groups.io wrote: > > The answer depends on whom you ask, and when. > > The long-awaited premiere > <https://tvreleasedates.com/the-good-lord-bird-delayed-showtime-announces-new-release-date/> > of Showtime’s “The Good Lord Bird <https://www.sho.com/the-good-lord-bird>,” > based on James McBride’s <https://www.jamesmcbride.com/> novel > <https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-good-lord-bird/> of the same > name, comes at a time when evolving popular perceptions of Brown have once > again gotten people thinking and talking about him. > > What the fuck? A TV series about John Brown based on a novel described in > the link above as: > > "In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as > Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project > in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody > shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range." > > What in god's name does that have to do with John Brown? I watched just 30 > seconds of a trailer for the Showtime "adaptation" and found it utterly > disgusting, with Ethan Hawke coming across as a psycho. Sounds even worse > than this: > > Last night at 6pm when I was surfing through my Verizon TV “favorites”, I > noticed that the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) network was airing “Santa Fe > Trail”, a 1940 movie that was described in the following terms: “Romantic > rivals get caught in the battle to stop abolitionist John Brown.” What the > fuck? The battle to stop John Brown? This I had to see. > > Although the film is a reactionary and racist piece of trash, I urge my > readers to watch it online through Youtube since it is an essential > cultural artifact of the New Deal. The writer/director team consisted of > Robert Buckner and Michael Curtiz, the same people who brought you “Mission > to Moscow”. > > Despite the title, the movie has nothing to do with wagon trains or > fighting off Indians. It is, as stated in the TCM blurb, an account of the > military campaign against John Brown led by J.E.B. “Jeb” Stuart that > climaxed with the raid on Harper’s Ferry, John Brown’s capture and eventual > hanging. The opening caption says it all: > > 1854 – The United States Military Academy – West Point. When the gray > cradle of the American army was only a small garrison with few cadets, but > under a brilliant Commandant, named Robert E. Lee it was already building > for the defense of a newly won nation in a new world. > > https://louisproyect.org/2012/04/10/santa-fe-trail/ > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#2191): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/2191 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77280031/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
