The First Lady

 We have seen stories about prominent politicians, their struggles and their impact.   The First Ladies were conceived as a sort of decoration, perhaps a tool to help their husbands get elected.  Ambitious men create problems for their spouses, but some women are also ambitious. For this series the focus is on Eleanor Ford, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama all with interesting stories.  They each had to endure White House staff attempting to control their duties and they all rebelled.

 

Each presidential candidate had serious obstacles to overcome.  

Franklin Roosevelt had the credentials, but his polio was something he had to hide. His mother was against his proceeding, but Eleanor thought he was strong enough. Barrack Obama was the first major black man and was the first candidate to get security before even declaring. Michelle was not very happy, anticipating endless scrutiny.  Betty Ford also was concerned about the disruption to her life.  Gerald Ford was the house leader, making him third in line.  Spiro Agnew was ousted for crimes and Nixon famously was likely to be convicted.

Betty Ford had been in an unhappy marriage prior to Gerald Ford and divorced.  Eleanor Roosevelt was a take charge person and did not consider First Lady a job, just circumstance, an obstacle to her desire to be an activist.  Michelle was identified as an asset, but was very reluctant.  She anticipated racism and lots of scrutiny.

Their lives were followed through courtships, marriages, struggles, campaigns, failures and triumphs.

Eleanor Roosevelt reacted against husband's adultery and wanted a divorce, but her mother in law forbade it  Eleanor accepted that they would sleep separately and she would continue to be involved with the government.  Later a lesbian affair developed with a reporter  that attracted attention of J. Edgar Hoover.  Franklin refused to press on the issue.  

Betty Ford, upset about the Nixon pardon which she identified as her husband's undoing.  She developed troubles with addiction to pain killer and alcohol.  One upsetting incident was after she had a mastectomy and the film showed her scars (and her husband's supportive reaction).  After leaving the White House her alcoholism and pain killer addiction alarmed her family who coerced into some very trying rehabilitation.  She was so grateful that she campaigned to build a treatment center.  

Michele was scrutinized, but also was very popular.  Some wanted her to run for political office, but wanted nothing to do with that.  Throughout the series we see racism.  Her brother got an athletic scholarship to Princeton, but she was advised she really was the Princeton type.  She did in fact go there and initially encountered some racism.

Politics is very visible.  There is always a conflict between doing what is right and the necessities of     getting elected.  Often the wives are frustrated that their husbands cannot do enough for things they believe in.

The last two episodes refer to Donald Trump.  As one character stated his own words should disqualify him, however too many voters liked what he says and others overlook his deeds and words.  I believe the series would have gotten (and deserved) higher ratings if it was not so negative on conservative Republicans, especially Donald Trump.

The film is a step forward explaining the role of First Ladies to help us understand them as humans.  For most of us the first ladies were of secondary interest while some thought merely decorations.  The series represented a mammoth effort involving a lot of professionals.  Below are listed only a few.

Aaron Cooley created the series, wrote for it and was an executive producer.  A graduate of the Yale Theater Studios.  He has 7 film credits.  He has also written two novels.

Susanne Bier is the director and executive producer.  An international award winner including an Oscar and Emmy.  The acting in this series is top notch due in small measure to her skills.  Her career started in Denmark.  She has 22 credits as director, 7 as producer and 13 as writer.  Her films include "Brother" (2004), "After the Wedding" (2006 and one of my very top films), "Things We Lost in the Fire"(2007), "In a Better World" (2010) and "The Undoing" (2020),   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/01/the-undoing.html

 Geoff Zanelli provided the music.  A guitar player got a big boost after meeting Hans Zimmer.  An Emmy award winner with 56 composing credits and another 49 music department,

 Amir Mokri handled the cinematography.  He has 37 film credits including "The Joy Luck Club" (1993).

Lindsey Woodward was an editor.  She has 30 film credits including "Shetland" (2016), "Grantchester" (2016),  "Big Little Lies" (2019),  "The Undoing" (2020) and "Sex Education" (2023). 

Sarah Finn worked the casting and was a co-producer.   She has 160 credits for editing and 19 as a producer including "Coach Carter" (2005), "Seven Psychopaths" (20112), "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missiouri" (2017) and "Everything, Everywhere all at Once" (2022).

Viola Davis played Michelle Obama and was also an executive producer.  She has 90 acting credits and 19 as producing including "The Help" (2011), "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (2011), "How to Get Away with Murder" (2014-2020), "Fences" (2016), "Widows" (2018), "The Unfogiveable" (2021), "The Woman King" (2022), and "Air" (2023).  With "Air" Michael Jordan made only one casting request and it was that Viola Davis play his mother.  Check:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/05/air-jordan.html

Michelle Pfeiffer played Betty Ford.  She has 69 film credits including "People Like Us" (2012), "The Family" (2013) and "Murder on the Orient Express" (2017).

Gillian Anderson played Eleanor Roosevelt.  She has 67 film credits including "The Last King of Scotland" (2006), "The Fall" (2014--also the producer), "Sex Education" (2019-2023) and "The Crown" (2020).

Kiefer Sutherland played Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  His Grandfather Tommy Douglas was Premier of Saskatchewan and later head of a national political party, the New Democratic Party.  His father is Donald Sutherland.  He has 106 credits as an actor and 13 as producer including "Stand By Me" (1986), "A Time to Kill" (1996),"Melancholia" (2011), "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (2012) and"Designated Survivor" (2016-2019).  

I was struck with the personal details that illustrate the stress political figures endure.  Politics is a dirty business, but some good is occasionally done.  During the series a brief reference to Nancy Reagan illustrates that some women just want to be an enhancement.  In recent news a political commentator suggested that Melania Trump just wanted to be a trophy wife, but recently she made a speech against her husband's immigration policies.  I would like to have seen Rosalynn Carter who I am sure will inspire her own share of films. 

I watched this series off a DVD borrowed from my local library.

As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen.

Air Jordan

You would be right to be suspicious of this review.  First off I am a basketball fan, second I am a Michael Jordan fan, but the focus on this story is more on risk taking for marketing.  My favorite line in "Air" (2023) is "everybody knew."  After the decisions were made and the results were overwhelming one character declared he knew all along and the main character replied that "Yeah, everybody knew."  Not true in this story and not true in a lot of stories.

Nike, the company known for running shoes was in trouble, especially in their basketball division.  Their budget for sponsorships had been cut and top basketball players were not interested.  It seemed likely if they don't pull off something unexpected they are going to eliminate the department.  In the early part of the movie, the main characters are in despair.  They argue which of the upcoming draft choices they should target.  Basketball fans will recognize some of the names, but I confess I don't even have a vague memory of some of them.

Michael Jordan had made a last second basket that won the March Madness tournament, but wasn't thought to be the top draft choice and had even dismissed Nike, not even wanting to talk to them.  Sonny Vaccaro, a Nike shoe salesman hired for his basketball expertise has an analytical talent  He studies endless clips of several players.  We see a lot of repetition of Jordan's winning basket and he sees and understand something that others missed.  There was actually a more famous player on the same team and he was bypassed at this critical point of the game.  The coach, Dean Smith had been criticized for coming very close in previous years and was determined to win.  Looking very closely Sonny concluded that this most crucial play was made for the 18 year old freshman, Michael Jordan.  Dean Smith had trust he would not be let down.

Having decided on this new target there was still the problem of how to overcome the Jordan indifference and a limited budget.  First Sonny demanded to be able to use the entire $250,000 budget for one player instead of 3 originally budgeted for.  All of the executives above him thought that because of the Jordan family declaration they did not want to talk to Nike made it not worth while.  Talking to Jordan's agent Sonny was told there could not be any direct talk to the Jordan family.

One of Sonny's colleagues said his success had come from talking to the mothers of top players and sure enough it was clear the Delores Jordan was a tough bargainer.  Risking a sanction against a direct approach Sonny decided to fly from Oregon to North Carolina.  He had a few words with Mrs. Jordan, who was impressed with his audacity and speech.  

He convinced her to to come to Beaverton, Oregon to meet the Nike board.  In the meantime he realized the money and clever words weren't enough.  He conceived the idea of developing a special shoe for Michael.  Working with their design they aimed a very high end shoe that could be adjusted.  They also thought a shoe with more red in it (he had been drafted by the Chicago Bulls) would be worth a fine of $5,000 for each game.  They came up with the idea of Air Jordan, although his agent also claimed credit.  Later they developed a logo based on a silhouette of Michael jumping through the air.  

The Jordans were impressed, but a later phone call (agonizingly delayed) from Mrs Jordan had one revolutionary request that her son get a commission on each shoe sold with his name on it.  Sonny explained this couldn't be done, but with some haggling it was done.  Afterwards (learned as the credits rolled) Sonny helped extend the commission idea to college athletes.

If you know about basketball you will know Nike signing up Michael Jordan was one of the smartest ever marketing decision anywhere.  And some people claimed that everybody knew he would be a superstar.

For basketball fans this is mostly a big tease until the end when they show a few clips of the real Michael Jordan doing what justifies the whole fuss, plus you hear a tribute to his mother.

The story had a guarantee of a good audience, but they were aided by an all star cast of actors and experienced crew.

For Alex Convery this was his first feature movie script.  He had grown up in Illinois and had been a Chicago Bulls fan.  He decided he wanted to be a film script writer.  During the Covid lockdown he watched "The Last Dance" (2020) a biographical series about Jordan.  In there was a 5 minute or so clip about the Nike deal and that provided the inspiration.   He wrote and re-wrote the script several times and sent it out.  It reached the attention of Ben Affleck who liked it and discussions soon resulted in a decision to start filming.

Ben Affleck was director and producer and played the role of Phil Knight, founder of Nike.  He is the one who sat with Michael Jordan to get permission. He is part of a creative team that started in his youth when he befriended Matt Damon, both living close to each other, taking part in Little League baseball and taking drama lessons.  Ben's first acting job was for a Burger King commercial.  They worked together with small roles, writing scrips.  Together they teamed up writing a script for "Good Will Hunting" and taking a role.  The film won an Oscar for the two writers and was a artistic and commercial success. He went on to win other awards including another Oscar.  His film credits include "State of Play" (2009), "The Company Man" (2010),  "The Town" (2010), "Tower Heist" (2011), "Argo" (2012) "Gone Girl" (2014), "The Accountant" (2016), "The Way Back" (2020) and "The Tender Bar" (2022).  He has a very calculating mind and was able to win a $365,000 pot in a Las Vegas poker tournament.       

Matt Damon also was a producer and the main lead.  As part of his teaming with Ben, they were extras in "Field of Dreams" (1989).  Matt Damon had dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on a film career.  His film credits include "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1994), "The Rainmaker" (1997), "Invictus" (2009), "The Informant" (2009), "Inside Job" (2010), "Hereafter" (2020), "We Bought a Zoo" (2010), "The Adjustment Bureau"" (2011), "Contagion" (2011), "Elysium" (2013), "Interstellar" (2014), "The Martian" (2015), "Manchester By the Sea" (2016) and "Ford vs. Ferrari" (2019)  He is best known by many for his 3 films as Jason Bourne.  Along with Ben he was very involved in fine tuning the script.

Peter Guber was another producer.  The films he has been a producer or an executive producer have earned $3 billiion dollars around the world and gained 50 Oscar nominations.  His film credits include "Rain Man" (1988), "Gorillas in the Mist" (1988) and "The Last Dance" (2020).  He was the producer for Grammy winning music and official soundtrack for the 1984 Olympics.  Perhaps more important he has been in charge of Sony Pictures and turned them around and then going on to set up other studios.  He has been on the faculty of UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television and is a full professor.  He has had a 20 year business relationship with Magic Johnson involving a theatre chain and ownership of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  He is a man who believes in the power of stories and inspired me to tell one of my most useful ones in his best selling book "Tell to Win".  check  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/06/tell-to-win-offers-winning-formula.html

Robert Richardson was the cinematographer and has won 3 Oscars plus another 4 nominations.  Before starting with feature films he did documentaries for PBS and BBC.  His film credits include "Eight Men Out"  (1988), "JFK" (1991),  "Heaven & Earth" (1993), "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), "The Aviator" (2004), "Inglorioius Basterds" (2009), "Eat Pray Love" (2010), "Hugo" (2011), "Django Unchained" (2012) and "A Private War" (2018).

William Goldenberg was the editor.  He won an Oscar for "Argo" (2012).  Other film credits included "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), "The Imitation Game" (2014), "Unbroken" (2014), "Concussion" (2015), "Detroit" (2017, "News of the World" (2020) and "The Outfit" (2012).

Jason Bateman played Rob Strasser Sony's immediate boss.  He is a versatile film maker.  Among his early roles at age 12 was with television series, for 21 episodes of "House on the Prairie".  At age 18 he directed 3 episodes of another tv. series.  His film credits include " The Invention of Lying" (2009), "Up in the Air" (2009), "The Change Up" (2011), "Bad Words" (2013), "This is Where I Leave You" (2013), "The Gift" (2015), "Zootopia" (2016), "Ozark "(2017-2020) and "Game Night" (2018).

Viola Davis was requested by Michael Jordan himself to play his mother.   She is another Oscar winner, this time for "Fences" (2016) for a supporting role she originated on Broadway.  She also is the first African American to win an Emmy for the lead in a television dramatic series,  "How to Get Away With Murder" (2014-2020).  Altogether she has won  112 awards and 231 nominations.  Other film credits include  "It's Kind of a Funny Story" (2010), "Eat Pray Love" (2010), "Trust" (2010), "The Help" (2011), "Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close" (2011), "Prisoners" (2013), "Widows" (2018), "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (2020), "The Unforgiveable" (2021) and "The Woman King" (2022).  She was chosen to play Michelle Obama in "The First Lady" (2022).    I had not seen that at this time, but insired to watch it was not disappointed.  Check http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/12/the-first-lady.html  She also has been a producer for 18 films with more on the way.

Viola Davis' actual husband Julius Tennon played Michael Jordan's father.  He received a football scholarship to University of Tulsa where he also became the first African American to graduate from their theatre program.  Has over 60 film credits (as actor and producer) including "How To Get Away with Murder" (2017) and"The Woman Warrior" (2022).  They try to arrange to work on the same film projects.

Chris Tucker plays the one role Michael Jordan requested to be included, Howard White.  He is well established as a stand up comedian.  For a brief time he was he highest paid actor in Hollywood, with $25 million for "Rush Hour 3" (2007).  Other film credits include "Rush Hour" (1998), "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) and "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" (2016).

 One surprise was there was almost no sign of Michael himself.  The most was a telephone voice.  This was a decision by Ben Affleck who felt anything but the real Michael Jordan would seem a fake.

It may seem like a mundane subject, a sponsorship for a basketball shoe, but it illustrates that everybody didn't know.  A lot of very talented people put an effort to its success.

You can read about my 60 years of basketball involvement  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/06/my-60-year-love-affair-with-basketball.html

As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen.  Not so usual was the large numbers of such films, hopefully reflecting the calibre of the people involved rather than my vanity (really I was lucky to have seen such films).   

DRISHYAM BOLLYWOOD REMAKE MASTERPIECE OF MASTERPIECE

I first noticed "Drishyam" through IMDB ratings a few months ago starting at about 9.0, but not too many followers.  Then it dropped to 8.9 and it seemed would follow a pattern of when the masses see something it usually goes downhill.  Followed practically every day with raters going up a few hundred everyday, but the rate maintained.  Below I will confess the reason for my obsession.

I didn't see the original version in Malayalam but feel secure declaring it a masterpiece. The author, Jeethu Joseph also directed.  It is often the case in India that they can just dub the original, however when something is especially good, Bollywood likes to remake it in Hindi.  I don't recall ever seeing a Malalayam film, but have seen many other languages--Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil and Telegu.  There are over 38 million  Malayalam speakers mostly in India.

Ajay Devgn is the key cast member.  Although I have seen him in a number of movies that I liked he is known principally for action movies where someone is hit hard enough to do two flips and crash through a wall.  But "Raincoat," and  "Rajineeti" were both my preferred types.  He is married to Kajol, one half of my favouite jodi and they have two kids.  Ajay fitted this effort between two movies with his own production film delayed for three months.   He was assured this production could be filmed in less than 12 weeks.  There is no evidence of it being rushed, but instead with lots of subtleties.

Shriya Saran played his wife and she is the reason I followed this movie so closely.   Saw her in "At the Other End of the Line," an English speaking movie where she played a call centre worker, very much a girl next door type, except she decided on impulse to travel to America to sneak up on an American she had talked to on the phone.  Shortly after some effort saw her in her native Tamil, as a sexy double crossing bitch where she was impressive in a different way.  She has appeared in a Canadian movie,  "Cooking with Stella,"   More famously she was in "Midnight's Children" directed by Deepa Mehta.  Mostly she gets stuck with supporting roles and reviewers usually commenting on her looks.   I follow her on IMDB, but lately there hasn't been very much positive except for "Drishyam."

Rajat Kapoor is another familiar face  usually in small supporting roles, often as a sophisticated business man.  He played an important small role in  "Dil Chatha Hai," a movie partly set in Goa  as is "Drishyam."  He is also in comedies.  In "Drishyam" he again plays the sophisticated business man but is the one squeamish character which turns out to be an important factor in this movie.  He plays the husband to the real star, Tabu.

Tabu (birth name Tabassum Hashmi) has established a strong reputation.  She played a small role in "The Life of Pi"  (Pi's mother then dies off),  and "The Namesake"  She played a military leader in "Fanaa".  She  was in a romance comedy, "Cheeni Kum."  In "Astitva" " she plays the one time unfaithful wife of a hypocritical husband.  She won an award playing in "Haider " (as Hamlet's mother) and has won numerous awards in India.  She is award worthy in this film.  The trailer portrays her as a tough opponent, and in that regard she is more brutal than shown in the trailer, but also much more nuanced--particularly as a mother of a missing son.  More on her:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2015/12/tabu.html

Two young girls who you might think are just decorations, but both required for critical moments and perform very well.  Ishita Dutta played the elder daughter and Mruan Javhad the younger.

Supporting actors are better than average.  A rough and ready police officer is well done as you will come to despise him.  Friends and family roles done well.

The story is a little different in that we know who committed the "crime" and we know the efforts to   catch them, but this is focused on how to avoid detection. Psychology is very important and is so well done that you feel yourself tensing up numerous times.

The director Nishikant Kamat uses such subtleties that reminds one of Hitchcock.  Actors are required to display a wide range of emotions.  I can only vaguely recall one other of his movies, "Mumbai Meri Jann" about a terrorist attack done with suspense.

The movie is a clever cat and mouse game with Tabu and Ajay.  She is the only one to realize he has concocted a story and cleverly induced many others to back it up.  The ending is poetic, but some have described as a twist, but there are many twists before hand and the ending is really sublime.

Except for some violence (mostly beatings), the movie is suitable for family viewing.  Bollywood for the most part is not as sexually explicit as Europe, Asia or even Hollywood, but you realize Ajay has a healthy sex relation with his wife and that sex sensitivity in a more puritanical society like India plays a key role.

My wife and I are watching and enjoying  "How to Get Away with Murder" which in a way could have been the title of "Drishyam."  The Viola Davis drama is more sensational and less psychological and with a lot of gratuitous sex.  I like a balanced diet of entertainment.

I came across comments that the story came from "The Devotion of Suspect X," a book I think is one of the best crime psychology books ever written, but what they have in common is only the idea of dueling with a smart detective.  There is a Japanese movie of that book and I would love to see it.

Chances are good you will before too long have access through your local library or maybe Netflix.  Likely there will be another adaptation.  I am also looking forward to the next movie of Tabu, "Talvar" that is already doing well at the festivals (including TIFF) with Irrfan Khan.  Ajay is in "Dilwale" with his wife, Kajol and the other half of my favorite jodi, Shah Rukh Khan which should be an interesting grouping.

As I rarely do single movie reviews the following links are to other exceptions.  To view another posting about a Bollywood classic with one of the same participants check out:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/07/dil-chatha-hai-bollywood-classic.html  Still another single movie review with a "Drishyam" participant is at:  http://www.johnfdavidson.com/2015/02/haider-bollywoods-version-of-shakespeare.html