RIFLE RANGE BOY

Thirteen Days (2000) Director: Roger Donaldson Recently Barbados, the Island Country in the Caribbean, cut her ties from British Commonwealth and declared herself a republic. She unceremoniously replaced QEII with her President as the Head of State to cut off England's previous legacy in slavery.  It also declared China as a friendly nation to rub salt on an open wound. To strengthen bilateral ties, flights between countries were commenced, and Barbados went so far as to let the Middle Kingdom finance many of its development projects. The Western world decries that this is a prelude to a takeover of Barbados by China via debt traps. Barbados denies, saying that China's loans constitute only 2.5% of the nation's total debt. America is, of course, hot under the collar because of its proximity to the United States. This kind of reminds us of the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962, which almost triggered the Third World War.  Soviet SS4 ballistic mi...

Dunkirk (2017) Written and Directed: Christopher Nolan Credit: Cinemusefilms It is a grim reminder that not everything done by the great War Prime Minister and the British Empire's leaders was right. History has shown many of Churchill's faux pas. Besides Gallipoli Campaign where only 10% percent of soldiers of the four corners of the British Empire managed to go back home, the events at Dunkirk must also be one page in his annals of annus horribilis. The thought of 300, 000 soldiers of the Allied Forces trapped in the Dunkirk by the advancing German forces and non-arrival of evacuation naval ships due to low tides must not have been a pretty sight. Hollywood and the silver screen, being the maker of dreams, managed to change the whole situation into an event of hope conveyed in the 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech that Churchill read. The story of 'Dunkirk' is told from the respective of at least three people. It comes from the narration of a...

Perception of Iran Ch 8. Iran and Aryan Myth David Motadel Enemies of my enemies are friends! Credit: historyisfascinating.com Just before the world went to war for the second time, there was a concerted effort by the ruling power to unite people along the lines of race and history. Hitler and his henchmen were going all out to describe a pure superior Aryan race. They were quick to vilify Jews as the vermin of society with the help of propaganda films. Pretty soon, the nation was hoodwinked to pursue what became a national agenda, anti-Semitism and eventually Holocaust. I was a little annoyed at the sight of a down-and-out politician who, without batting an eyelid ferociously claimed to the world that he is an unapologetic racist and is proud of it, to the thunderous applause of his supporters. What are they thinking or are they thinking at all? Do they not know history? It is intriguing how the Aryan race and its origin had been manipulated by leaders to carry out thei...

Hacksaw Ridge (2016) If I did not know better, that it was a movie directed by Mel Gibson (of 'Braveheart' and 'Passion of Christ' fame), I would have thought that it could be some kind of a divine satire. The idea of a pacifist enlist as a soldier in the Second World War just does not make sense. Surprisingly, it is actually based on true story and such a soldier did walk this Earth and was awarded the Medal of Honour for his work beyond the call of duties in the Battle of Okinawa. He was a non-rifle carrying, conscientious objector, a vegetarian, a Sabbath-keeping Seventh Adventist Church Baptist who believed that he was sent to Earth with a mission. The soldier, Desmond Doss, was convinced that his calling was to serve his country and save the soldiers but without touching a gun but through offering medical help to wounded soldiers in battle. He keeps his faith despite the atrocities he witnessed on the battle field. With a Bible in his pocket and a photograp...

Malaya 1942 There is no such thing as the 'good guy' or that good guys always wear black! Everybody does something not with the purest of thoughts but with the motive of ‘what's in for me?' lurking entrenched in his mind. This, the Asiatic peace loving natives, found out the hard way. About three-quarter of a century ago, Malayans were visited by their fellow Asiatics on bicycles. A group of Malayans were actually happy that their kind of people were coming to liberate them from the tyranny of the foreign oppressors. Little did they realise what waited for them - from the frying pan into the flaming hot fire! In 1945, when Sukarno declared independence and proclaimed Indonesia as a sovereign nation, the British, who gave an aura of being a just army, caring for humanity and liberty, came into Indonesia. The Malayans who once looked at their colonial masters as fair soon realised that they do not care about the people of the East. They were only interested in safe...

Sincere gesture or showmanship? 70 years ago today, the world was at war at two frontiers. The Western front was over and when everyone thought the Pacific one would also simmer down, the powers that be decided that it was mandatory to drop a bomb so powerful that could one day lead to the annihilation of our race, the human race. Till date, no formal apology had been laid to the victims; either from Japan to its victims in Far East and South East Asia or from America to victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! I saw an awkward youtube recording of a 1955 American TV show named 'This is your Life'. 10 years after Hiroshima, Capt Robert Lewis who dropped Little Boy from the B29 bomber 'Enola Gray' met a Japanese Methodist Reverend, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, who was there on the ground as the recipient of the devastating effects of an atomic bomb. All cried out already? The show was a shame cleansing attempt by the aggressors by shamelessly announcing to the world of ...

Water Diviner (2014) I remember that the Gallipoli campaign was one which carried a high mortality but somehow almost all involved in it came out heroes, or at least they were made to think. The Australians and New Zealanders began their nationalistic pride here as a nation and still commemorate their landing through ANZAC day and glorify their dead in their monuments. The Sikhs are proud to have died valiantly defending the Queen and their colonial masters. The Turks held their heads high to have successfully kept the Allied Forces at bay. It was also the ground in which a certain soldier who later modernised Turkey - Kamal Ataturk. As Sun Tze said many years earlier, "In war, they are no winners, only losers." Even Winston Churchill whose strategy fell flat here, leading to meaningless deaths here, blossomed to lead the nation to fight another world war to come out smelling of roses and be immortalised as a true statesman. Recently, the star of this movie, Russell Crow...

Tomoyuki Yamashita @ Tiger of Malaya 1885 -1946 His name rhymed with dog, so we call him one. Maybe because he tried to live up in the shadows of his brother who was a Valedictorian and school head prefect, Anjing-san wagged his tail around the teachers in the beginning of year for him to be thrown the bone of the unenviable post of class monitor. Our last three doggone years of primary school were filled by his tyranny. Looking like General Yamashita of World War 2 infamy with his physique and hair cut, he fitted the role of a loyal bulldog very well. With his iron-fist style of leadership, he managed to instil morbid fear in our young fragile chicken hearts. During the brief moments that the teacher would leave the class to run errands, Anjing-san would morph to the front ready to pounce as he jotted down names of 'trouble maker' students on the class board for the teacher to peruse. He made it appear as if he had a special one to one divine relationship with the ...

A Japanese balloon bomb (Fu-Go)  photographed in New York,  July 2, 1945.  Associated Press I always thought that American soil was infiltrated only once by the Japanese, in 1941 at Pearl Harbour. And the second, of course was 9/11. No, wrong. That was indeed another successful bombardment of USA, not in the fringes of the country but at its belly! It fact it was kept hush hush for many years. After the 1942 humiliation of the Japanese by the US bombers led by Colonel Doolittle who flew past the royal palace, the Japanese wanted to get even with the Yankees. They wanted to get even with their foes. In spring of 1945, a pastor went on a picnic with his pregnant wife and 5 lads. While emptying the luggage, before he could alert his family an explosion killed all 6. They had been fascinated by a balloon contraption. Many similar devices were seen all over Oregon. Panic set in the local community. They were fearing for the worse. Like 9/11. they thought en...

Sanshiro Sugata (   ( 姿三四郎 , aka Judo Saga; 1943 ) Director: Akira Kurosawa Japan was at the pinnacle of spreading the influence of The Land of the Rising Sun over its Eastern and South East Asian minions. Back home it was business as usual, art and culture wise. Movies were still made and Kurosawa made his directorial debut through this movie. To keep to the wartime sensitivities of the nation, the censors slashed 1845 feet (17 minutes) of the film footage prior to screening without the consent of the producers. This debut effort shows unique characteristic camera work of Kurosawa. The story is simple. A rogue but talented street fighter, Sanshiro Sugata, tries to learn martial arts from a master who refuses. First, he has to learn humility and discipline. He transforms into a conscientious and respected Judo fighter. A shady character appears to challenge him to a square fight but his master denies that. The fight eventually happens at the end. Before that he has fig...

Thanks RS for contribution. http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/introduction/ One hundred years ago, in the summer of 1914, a series of events set off an unprecedented global conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 16 million people, dramatically redrew the maps of Europe, and set the stage for the 20th Century. Alan Taylor APRIL 27, 2014 A century ago, an assassin, a Serbian nationalist, killed the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary  as he visited Sarajevo. This act was the catalyst for a massive conflict that lasted four years.  More than 65 million soldiers were mobilized by more than 30 nations, with battles taking place around the world. Industrialization brought modern weapons, machinery, and tactics to warfare, vastly increasing the killing power of armies. Battlefield conditions were horrific, typified by the chaotic, cratered hellscape of the Western Front, where soldiers in muddy trenches faced bullets, bom...