Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

Stu's One Sentence Review of "Avatar"

Roger Ebert got it right and many other reviewers, I believe, missed the point. [Click here to read Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun Times] Before I get to my one sentence review, I saw the film in 2D, for modern 3D films give me a headache, (even though I'll go see it again in 3D, just so I can say I have.) Ok, here goes. Granted, it's a run-on sentence, but it's a good one.

"James Cameron's visually beautiful film, 'Avatar' tells a very predictable but truly wonderful MYTH, that Humans have been telling each other around campfires for 10,000 years; a two-fold story, first of two warriors who fights against evil to protect their people, and second, sharing this message [told to all those people around those countless ancient fires and today, those thousands in front of numerous movie screens], that The Earth is Sacred; that all things, all people are connected; that we need to honor one another; that Nature is Holy, and that without Her, we, as Humans, will die in our hearts and in our souls." - Stu Jenks, New Year's Eve, 2009.

Gran Torino

[My Dad wasn't quite as crude as Walt, but close. Walt is a good man. So was my Dad. and I like to think that Stuart Sr., would have done what Walt did. This great movie makes me miss my father. I give this new Clint Eastwood film very high praise. Rent it, and perhaps you'll like it as much as I do. Love you Dad. Love you too Walt.]

"Walk The Proud Land" (c) 1956

"Walk The Proud Land" (c) 1956

[Am watching the film 'Walk The Proud Land', on AMC this morning. It's an Audie Murphy film about John Clum, an Indian Agent in Arizona at the time of Geronimo, after The Apache Wars. Clum was an interesting character, the first agent of the San Carlos Apache Reservation in 1873, was the owner, on one time, of both the Tucson Citizen newspaper and of the Tombstone Epitaph and was Tombstone's first mayor. Was one of the few white men at the time, who treated Apaches as actual human beings.

Yet this film I can only give one star. The history is incredibly distorted and inaccurate, the portrayal of the Apaches is in that classic racist Hollywood style of the 1950's, with lots of grunts by the Indians, bizarre tribal dancing that looks like something out of a Broadway revival, and showing Apache chiefs as lecherous men who think women need to be fattened up and beaten. I can go on and on. My favorite laughable moment is seeing Anne Bancroft playing the role of the Apache woman Tianay who is hopelessly in love with Audie.

But I do give it one star and say, that on a rainy day, it's worth watching simply for these two reasons: One, it shows how far we have come in our understanding and respect of Native People in the last 50 years (even though we have farther to go) and secondly, you can see the scenery of my home in the Sonoran Desert beautifully filmed by the director Jesse Hibbs. It was filmed at Old Tucson Studios and the Tucson Mountains that you see in the background in almost every shot haven't changed much over the years. And the desert just looks great.

But if you are a Native Man or Woman, this film just might make you sick. Or it may make you laugh. Me? I feel a bit of both.]