Hollywood high schools offer fun ‘memories’

Bill Knight column for 2-13, 14 or 15, 2020             

After TV decreased movie audiences, Hollywood started targeting the demographic that still made up cineplex customers: high schoolers.

This week – the 86^th anniversary of U.S. high schools’ first driver’s-ed class (in State College, Pa.) – is a fine time to reflect on motion pictures about high school life. After all, through all the memories, good and bad, Americans frequently relive those “Glory Days,” as Bruce Springsteen sang. And Hollywood has helped recreate days of crises and crying, laughter and love, and shared pasts often forgotten until reunions.

            Of course, everybody’s tempted to see themselves as heroic or tragic, identifying with Olivia Newton-John in “Grease,” the prep schoolers in “Dead Poets’ Society,” the suburban kids of “Sixteen Candles,” or schoolgirl Lulu in “To Sir with Love.” But “Hollywood high school” shows experiences few had: action heroes like Tom Berenger in “The Substitute”; exotic beauties like Sharon Stone in “Diabolique”; zany staffers like Jon Lovtiz in “High School High”; or stunning triumphs or tragedies like the athletes in “Hoosiers” or Sissy Spacek and John Travolta at the prom in “Carrie.”

Besides the “American Pie” canon, the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Conrack,” “High School Musical,” “October Sky,” “Rebel without A Cause,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” “Teaching Mrs. Tingle,” etc., two of the strangest such films are “The Teacher” and “High School USA.” The former has a maturing Jay North (TV’s “Dennis The Menace” 1959-63) introduced to sex by Angel Tompkins while a psychopath threatens them; the latter is mostly cameos by generations of child actors: Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon and Todd Bridges, plus the older Bob Denver, Dwayne Hickman, Tony Dow, David Nelson, Elinor Donahue, and Angela Cartwright.

            Of all the many high school flicks, here are 10 still worth watching:

“American Graffiti” (1973): Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Charles Martin Smith star in an affectionate recollection of ’60s car culture in California. Directed by George Lucas, it features Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams and Harrison Ford.

“The Blackboard Jungle” (1955): This juvenile-delinquent drama stars Glenn Ford as a teacher suffering a traumatic introduction to New York City’s school system. What makes it superb are filmmaker Richard Brooks’ atmosphere and a strong supporting cast: Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Richard Kiley, even an adolescent Jamie Farr.

“The Breakfast Club” (1985): The Brat Pack is in fine form in director John Hughes’ coming-of-age paean to ’80s teen-age angst. Emilo Estevez, All Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson star as five kids who finally open up and talk about themselves during Saturday detention. Funny and sad, honest and phony, profound and goofy – like a lot of teens can be.

“Cooley High” (1975): Wrongly dismissed as an inner-city knockoff of “American Graffiti,” this funny drama shows a too-rare glimpse of urban black America, circa 1964. Actors Garrett Morris, Glynn Turman, Lawrance Hilton-Jacobs are excellent.

“Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982): It’s amazing/amusing to see Sean Penn as Spicoli in this comedy about shallow Southern California youths. Based on Cameron Crowe’s book, the film features Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates and Ray Walston.

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986): John Hughes directed this romp starring Matthew Broderick as a likeable scamp senior ditching school to enjoy Chicago with a pal (Alan Ruck). Co-stars include Jennifer Grey and Jeffrey Jones, plus bits by Charlie Sheen and Ben Stein.

“Heathers” (1989): Winona Ryder and Cristian Slater star in this dark comedy about a high school whose social scene is dominated by a clique of girls all named Heather. Shannen Doherty is featured.

“High School Confidential” (1958): This silly rock ‘n’ roll update of “Reefer Madness” is so bad it’s hilarious. Russ Tamblyn stars as an undercover agent trying to break a ring of marijuana dealers. Occasionally known and shown as “Young Hellions,” this cult classic has a weird, wily cast: Mamie Van Doren, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jan Sterling, Jackie Coogan, John Drew Barrymore and Charlie Chaplin Jr.

“Juno” (2007): Ellen Page stars as an independent-minded teen dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. The warm-hearted drama/comedy (“dramedy”) costars Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons.

“Stand and Deliver” (1988): Edward James Olmos is fascinating as a frumpy but effective math teacher who gives up a lucrative electronics job to take a classroom of full-bodied misfits (including Lou Diamond Phillips, who’s understated and stunning) and reach and teach them. They see the light – and calculus! Based on a true story, it co-stars Andy Garcia.

Wouldn’t Lincoln laugh at today’s politics?

Bill Knight column for 2-10, 11 or 12, 2020

Despite being name-dropped by both President Trump and his lawyer Alan Dershowitz in a matter of days, Abraham Lincoln probably is NOT rolling in his grave.

As the world marks the 291^st anniversary of his birth this week, Honest Abe is more likely rolling in laughter.

Trump almost off-handedly included Lincoln in a list of historical figures in last week’s State of the Union speech, and Dershowitz during the impeached president’s sham Senate trial cited Lincoln in a bizarre argument that U.S. presidents can do anything they want if they think an act – no matter its constitutionality – is in the “public interest.”

Claiming that during the Civil War President Lincoln “told General Sherman to let the troops go to Indiana so that they can vote for the Republican Party,” Dershowitz argued before the Senate, “let’s assume the president was running [for re-election] at that point, and it was his electoral interest to have these soldiers put at risk the lives of many other soldiers who would be left without their company. Would that be an unlawful quid pro quo?”

(“Seems like it,” chuckled one downstate columnist from the Land of Lincoln, “– but do you have witnesses?”)

As shown in Richard Carwardine’s book “Lincoln’s Sense of Humor,” released in paperback this fall, Lincoln would probably get a kick out of the authoritarian direction enabled by what’s being called the Dershowitz Doctrine.

“At its gentlest best,” Carwardine wrote, “Lincoln’s humor reflected an appreciation of the foibles, weaknesses and absurdities of humankind.”

There’s plenty of that around.

Of course, for centuries there were leaders who valued humor, whether from court jesters or shamans with tricks up their sleeves. But leaders themselves weren’t always funny themselves – nor have senses of humor. Did Germans tell many Hitler jokes in the 1930s? Did Apaches spoof Geronimo in the 1860s? It’s hard to imagine Attila or Augustus, Mussolini or Mao, Al Capone or El Chapo appreciating a comical look at themselves.

But Lincoln had a knack for self-mockery, Carwardine said. The 16^th president saw silliness in himself as well as the countless tales he enjoyed sharing – anecdotes often with life lessons almost as insightful as New Testament parables.

“Lincoln’s exceptional memory and clear fascination with the human experience provided him with a seemingly inexhaustible repertoire of jokes and humorous stories,” commented Christian McWhirter of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. “When paired with his belief in fairness and remarkable ability to pick out a cogent lesson from seemingly any situation, they became his most valuable rhetorical tools.”

Besides teaching in self-deprecating and amusing ways, Lincoln’s stories and jokes became a key part of how he created and strengthened ties to others, from cranky cabinet officials to ambitious generals.

Often oversimplified and romanticized, Lincoln was burdened with the war and slavery, plus a genuine empathy for the common person.

“Lincoln’s intrinsic humor was that of a humanitarian and helped contribute to turn his stature as president into statesmanship,” according to a Civil War Book Review article on this book by Carwardine, an Oxford University professor emeritus as well as Lincoln scholar.

John David Smith, author of “Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops,” said, “Carwardine interprets Lincoln’s propensity for the jocular, especially his use of self-effacing stories, as an essential part of his humanity, a means of dealing with life’s ups and downs.”

Today’s Trump Republicans might shock Lincoln, but he’d at least smile. After all, Lincoln helped establish the Republican Party after giving up on Democrats’ previous opponent, the Whigs. (Lincoln also might be having a real knee-slapping time at Iowa Democrats’ apparent inability to count.)

Maybe it will take some good, old-fashioned comedy, as well as perspective and hope, to replace what’s left of the GOP with a new empathetic force tied to regular Americans – and a Democratic Party also in touch with ordinary people more than the Donor Class).

That 21^st century “Battle Hymn of the Republic” could put grins on a lot of faces.

Amid swirling headlines, did Iran get lost?

Bill Knight column for 2-6, 7 or 8, 2020

The Senate’s travesty of a trial for Trump, the tragedy of Kobe Bryant’s death, a series of earthquakes and volcanos, Super Bowl-winning Chiefs and World Series-cheating Astros, Australia ablaze, the coronavirus, and the Doomsday Clock; they’ve all dominated our attention for weeks.

What about Iran?

A month ago President Trump ordered a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone to attack vehicles leaving the airport in Baghdad, Iraq, an airstrike that killed 10 people, including Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a powerful figure and one responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and thousands of others throughout the Mideast.

Within days, Iran downed a Ukrainian airliner to widespread condemnation (few recalled the U.S. similarly destroying an Iranian airliner in 1988). Anti-regime protests in Iran faded in outrage against America. The U.S.-installed government in neighboring Iraq voted to expel U.S. troops, and other countries, from NATO allies to China and Russia, denounced the killing. Iran launched missiles at two Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces and injured dozens of U.S. troops, thousands of Americans were sent to the region, Trump announced new economic sanctions against Iran, and he even threatened Iran’s cultural sites.

            January 25’s nationwide “Day of Action” opposing war with Iran mostly went unnoticed despite rallies in Chicago and college towns including Bloomington/Normal, Carbondale and Champaign/Urbana.

            Is little notice due to distraction? Exhaustion?

In 17+ years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq (where Iranian forces were ALLIED against both the Taliban and ISIS), Americans made sacrifices of time, talent and treasure: countless casualties and untold costs.

But there IS an accounting: $6.4 trillion and 801,000 total deaths by the end of Fiscal Year 2020, according to Brown University.

Still, Americans are as divided about Iran as they are polarized about politics. The public is split, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll; 47 percent disapprove of the president’s actions concerning Iran, but 45 percent approve. (Trump’s public support isn’t good overall, with 51% disapproving and 44 percent approving.)

Trump’s order to assassinate a sovereign country’s military leader was based on uncertain intelligence and flimsy rationales without involving Congress. Sen. Tim Kaine and Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin introduced measures to stop escalation under Congress’ War Powers Act, and no proof’s been shared, angering conservative Republican Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul, and also centrist Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Marine who served in Iraq and earned a Bronze Star.

“If there is intelligence that shows this strike prevented a new and imminent threat to Americans, I have yet to see it,” Moulton said. “I fought in a war a president started because of cooked and false intelligence; we cannot let this Administration repeat that mistake.”

Moulton warned military officers about phony justifications for deadly force.

“Look very carefully at every order given to you by this president,” Moulton said. “It is our duty to make sure everything done in the name of the United States military is lawful; and that burden falls on us. ... We have an opportunity to call on our military officers around the world to bring new scrutiny to their sworn oath to obey lawful orders, and only lawful orders.”

The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 9 detailed Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani, reporting (buried in a lengthy story) that it was for Senate Republicans who’d judge his impeachment.

“Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial,” according to the newspaper.

Someone whose actions have faced few consequences in his life, from military service and marriage infidelity to business failures and prejudices, Trump exploits his (growing) power, succumbs to flattery and throws tantrums like a toddler. That exists alongside cronies’ long-time thirst for oil, from 1953 (when the CIA engineered a coup toppling Iran’s elected president Mohammad Mossadegh) to a recent craving for an oil field Iran discovered in November (one with 53 billion barrels of crude).

As the USA seems to slide slowly toward authoritarianism, George Orwell’s “1984” becomes more relevant. Its Chapter III, “War is Peace,” is particularly noteworthy: “By becoming continuous, war has fundamentally changed ... War is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.”

Decades later, progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is sharing her doubts with moderate and conservative colleagues, commenting, “War is a class conflict, too. The rich and powerful who open war escape the consequences of their decisions. It’s not their children sent into the jaws of violence.”

Trump doesn’t care; he’s only ever had one interest: himself.