Frank Capra directed a number of movies, and one of his movies that has been marked as a great movie, one that has been remembered for quite some time is ‘Meet John Doe’, released in 1941. Frank Capra had a certain style to his movies, and a lot of his movies showcased qualities such as the basic element of human goodness, hard work and being good to others (also translated as being unselfish); such a concept is very rarely seen in modern age movies that tend to show a large portion of life as having all human emotions including the negative ones, and fewer roles tend to be fully white, more like everybody having shades of grey. Some of the other famous movies by Frank Capra include ‘It’s a wonderful life’ (1946), ‘It happened one night’ (1934), and many others. The movie did not do well at the Academy Awards, being nominated for Best Original Story.

This movie is slotted as a comedy, but it actually takes a hard and cynical look at both the newspaper business and at politics. The movie principally stars Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward Arnold. Barbara is a newspaper columnist, Ann Mitchell, who has just been fired, and angry, prints a fake letter from a ‘John Doe’, who claims that he is unemployed and threatens to commit suicide against the various ills of society. This letter catches the emotional thread of many many citizens, and becomes very popular. As a result, Mitchell is forced to continue the tale (in the process having got her job back), and to make sure that the story has some legs to stand on, they hire a vagabond and former baseball player, John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), to tour the country.
This movement becomes popular, drawing in support from all over, and is financially supported by the newspaper’s publisher, D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold), who recognizes that such a movement could be a potent political weapon and aims to use it for his own fledging political aspirations. John soon discovers that he is being used, but before he can expose this whole scam, he is in turn exposed by Norton who claims that he was unaware of the scam.
Driven by frustration, John plans to commit suicide by jumping off City Hall (as claimed in the original letter); but what happens ? Does he commit out the actual suicide, or do the John Doe clubs manage to get him to back off ?

The American President is a sweet romance story set in the midst of the American Presidency and an impending election. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. The American President (Michael Douglas) has just had some high poll ratings and this gives his team some confidence that they are in a good spot to win re-election. His principal advisor and Chief of Staff (Martin Sheen) and he go back a long way and have an easy comfort. He also does not seem to have any character blemish, being a widower with a young daughter, and no female companions to worry about. The only issue is the contender from the rival party, but they are not really worrying about this.
Things start to change when a new lady Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) comes into town, as one of the main lobbyists for a Green coalition. Her aim is to get a law passed that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions (a target for most environmentalists since that leads to a reduction in fossil fuel consumption and an overall reduction of oil used). She has a pretty good reputation as a lobbyist, being able to get members of Congress to her position. The President also has an objective, to get gun laws modified by a small extent, so that he can claim overall credit for reducing guns in general hands and maybe cause a reduction in violence levels (one of his advisors Michael J Fox wants him to try and do something like that, but the President is unwilling to go beyond a certain point). However, he is not willing to try and stake a lot of political capital in trying to get a comprehensive arms control bill passed.

And then the President meets her in a accidental meeting at the White House, where she is criticizing the President for his administration’s policies in the environmental sphere, not knowing that the President has just walked in. When she finds out, there is a sense of embarrassment, but it passes and he makes a deal with her that if she can get a majority in Congress, the environmental bill will get the support of the administration. The President is taken with her, and invites her to be his date for an official function since he needs a companion; she is a bit taken back, but accepts. The date passes by fine, and she gets closer to the President, but a bit apprehensive since she is after all a political lobbyist and he is the President, imagine the complications. Soon, however, things start to heat up when she spends a night at the White House with the President, and the press corps is outside in the morning to greet her . She is the talk of the night shows and the President is slowly becoming the target of the moral groups, and as well the target for his election contender. This heightens when it is discovered that Benning had once taken part in a demonstration in which the American Flag is burnt, and this calls into question the patriotism of the President, and he is severely attacked by his opponent Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss).
Against the advice of his advisors, the President refuses to reply to these attacks, assuming that this will demean his office if he has to respond to such attacks. However, in the end, the President betrays her by trading the votes of some die-hard anti-environmental bill politicians (from Michigan, where Detroit is the center of the car manufacturing corporations and die-hard opponents of the bill). When this happens, and Benning finds out, she is fired from her job since the bill is now dead, and she gives a piece of her mind to the President and walks out. After some introspection, the President finally decides to respond to all the attacks, and gives a rousing press speech where he defends her right as a free American to burn the flag in a demonstration (a freedom enshrined in the bill of rights), commits his administration to fight for the environment and withdraw his arms control bill and float a new one that will actually do something to control arms. This is a rousing speech that convinces her that this is a new President, as well as promise a rousing fight from his side in the election campaign that will take the fight to his opponent.
This is a very liberal movie from a very liberal movie maker, and is worthy of a watch.

Robert Ludlum wrote a lot about conspiracies of power and attempting to take control, a subject that was very popular in the 60′s and 70′s with all the talk of the rise of the arms-industrial complex and associated industries; the good part is that he was able to weave a good storyline that kept a person compelled to read the book. Ludlum’s books had many things in common, they had a fast paced action, they always had many top level people involved, including surprises where some of the people were not expected to be a part of the conspiracy, but they were.
The Materese Circle involves 2 brutal and skilled enemies, Vasili Taleniekov from the Soviet Union, and Brandon Alan Scofield from the US State Dept Consular Relations. These 2 are killers who have killed people loved by either one of them, and hate each other in a visceral way. And they are the 2 main suspects from either side when valuable people on tne US (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Soviet (a very renowned scientist) side are assassinated in a brutal way. Suspicion immediately falls onto the other, and is only neautralized when the leaders of either countries calls the other.

Both of these are killers are now getting slightly old, maybe not of so much use to their country’s intelligence community, but still have the talent. However, little do they know about the way that their life is going to be turned. They are soon going to be getting information about a massive conspiracy, called the Materese Circle, spun by an old Corsican rich man and coming to full active life now. The conspiracy has its own troops, its own assassins and its own leaders, and they will stop at nothing to remove the ones they want to remove from their path. The Materese leaders are the ones who are orchestrating the international terrorism community (one must remember this was before the time of the Al-Qaeda), and is now moving towards getting control of both Moscow and Washington DC, and it is very difficult to stop them.
Taleniekov learns of these facts from an old friend who is dying after a visit from a killer of the Matarese Circle, and finds it hard to believe all this conspiracy, and when told to work with Scofield, refuses; but soon things are moving to get them together. Both these skilled killers are, under instructions from Matarese Men, sentenced to death by their respective Governments, no capture, no interrogation, just execution. Eventually, these 2 old enemies, get together (in an incredible episode of violence where they manage to kill the assassins sent to kill them). They travel to the Island of Corsica to learn more, and learn a fair deal more about the origins of the group called the Matarese. They are pursued relentlessly by the Matarese, who don’t hesitate to kill friends and loved ones of these 2.
At the same time, these 2 are getting closer to the source, and eventually manage to reach their target, and in a final burst of violence, manage to eliminate the Matarese council, even as the Soviet is lost in this final carnage. Read the book for its fast paced flow, for the story that could seem realistic in a different time and that is very gripping.

For those of you who have not read books by Bill Bryson before, be prepared for a blast. These books are non-fiction, but are incredibly funny. There has been many a time when I have had to go back and read a section that I just read since it made me laugh (and I wanted to laugh again). Some of the other great books of Bill Bryson that you should read are a ‘A Lost continent’, ‘A walk in the woods’, ‘A short history of nearly everything’, ‘Down Under’, and so on (you get the picture – I have yet to read a Bill Bryson book that did not appeal).
This book is about the development of English language down the ages, so you will find a lot of detail about how words came to be added to the English used in the United States, such as derived from the American Indians who were living there when the settlers first went in, from various languages (or rather from the immigrants of various countries such Germany, French, Irish, British, and so on,) and from whom many words of the language came to be derived, though many times these were twisted and turned in a way that the original speaker would not have realized.

But is this just a scholarly exposition of the development of the English language used in the United States ? That would be downright boring. To everyone’s relief, such is not the case. The book delves into the history of the United States and presents a great many facts while reliving the story, at the same time, debunking many myths that we have. The book is a great read for anyone who wants to read about the history of the United states through its culture, not through politics or war. From the starting, the book is a wonder of facts and learning:
- Giving a lot more detail about the original settlers and whether there were people before them
- About the way that the original settlers almost got wiped out, but survived due to the help of the native Indians nearby
- About the nature of the apparently frigid puritans and the easy prevalence of sex before marriage as a way to measure compatibility and how many marriage were formalized after a baby had been conceived
- A great many myths around the American revolution including heroic words and actions ascribed to people who apparently did no such thing
- The womanizing nature of Benjamin Franklin
- The great debates and concerns around having the different time zones and even more so, the concept of daylight savings time
- A lot of description of the many inventions and the different nature of the investors (their human traits as compared to the noble myths around them)
and so on
Too many to tell, it is better read from the book which is a very enthralling reading.