The New Yorker on "Contagion"

The good news? They like it. They like it a lot. The bad news? They gush. (See link at bottom). What's important from the review, though, is this: "'Contagion' is, of course, a 9/11-anniversary movie, though probably not one that the public was expecting. Soderbergh appears to be saying, 'I’ll show you something far worse than a terrorist attack, and no fundamentalist fanatic planned it.' The film suggests that, at any moment, our advanced civilization could be close to a breakdown exacerbated by precisely what is most advanced in it. And the movie shows us something else: heroic work by scientists and Homeland Security officials. We can’t help noticing that with two exceptions—a French doctor who works for the World Health Organization (Marion Cotillard) and a renegade epidemiologist in San Francisco (Elliott Gould)—the heroes are all employees of the federal government, and instinctively factual people. No one prays, no one calls on God. “Contagion” lacks any spiritual dimension—except for its passionate belief in science and rational administration. The movie says: When there’s real trouble, we’re in the hands of the reality-based community. No one else matters." That said, I'm still waiting for a reviewer to compare it to "Andromeda Strain", one way or another. Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2011/09/19/110919crci_cinema_denby#ixzz1XTcuen8M

Did you recognize what yesterday was?

It was called "Peace One Day."

It's an attempt to organize all of us on the planet to go one day with peace--and without war and killing.

It's pretty idealistic, sure, but frankly I think we need some hopeful idealism.

You can see things about it if you do an internet search on it in general or if you search for it on You Tube.

Naturally, if you know anything of me at all, you know this would get me thinking.

Think about this.

The idea that we've always had wars and so, always will, starts to look as though it's really not true after all.

Let's look, briefly, at the largest wars of the last 100 years. Fortunately, it won't take long.

World War I began when a lunatic/anarchist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

If there had been more information and even education, it could, possibly, have been avoidable, some historians believe.

WWII?

Again, I think historians, politicians and even the average "man on the street" believe that another lunatic started that war, too, in the person of Adolf Hitler.

Then there was the Korean War which I think the general consensus is that that was either a mistake or unnecessary or both, too, one way or another.

Vietnam War? We know the architects of that war itself--Robert McNamara, in specific--declared that a debacle and huge mistake.

Then there's the Iraq War, which I believe strongly that historians are going to prove was for protection of our own oil supply, at least, and again, unnecessary and completely avoidable.

So there you are--100 years of the biggest skirmishes of the 20th Century and they were, I think it's proven here, however lightly, that were avoidable.

I'm convinced that we are completely capable of wisely working our way out of wars one day.

And this Peace One Day and the International Day of Peace (Sept. 14) and universities that have been set up to study war--and peace--can go a long way to getting us there one day.

And the sooner the better, of course.

Link: http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sp0QGCYmnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLH1NTEgEvM
http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/welcome