[Leica] IMG: John's birthday - not a WW2 post

[passaro.vince at gmail.com (Vince Passaro)]

Right around the time of Schpeilberging Private Ryan there appeared, with
far less attention paid, a magnificent American film about the war, Pacific
side however, by Terrence Malik, called The Thin Red Line. I highly (double
highly) recommend it. Starred Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, and some others you'd
know.  It has none of the sentimental nonsense of Schpielberg.  Malik is one
of the less famous great American filmmakers of this amazing generation of
filmmakers who got their starts in the 1970s. And I bring all this up
because for those on this list who might not know his work, it is, from a
photographic perspective, unparalleled. On the level of control of the
image, he is more kin to Kurasawa or Ozu than he is to his American peers.
His first film was Badlands; then Days of heaven, then 20 years before The
Thin Red Line, then The New World. Four so far.

I think it bears remarking too that all these films like Ryan and the
further Schpielbergification of Band of Brothers, laying on the schmalz
about how the "greatest generation"  saving the world etc etc, while having
some truth (you meet these guys, like John, and they are impressive; they
often have an undeniable integrity; they are in some ways the last
Americans: durable, innocent, straightforward, provincial), this stuff also
now has a much darker political outcome (and, quite likely, purpose). It
reinforces our (America's) bizarre sense that it's okay just to send our
frigging troops in, dicks swinging, whenever we feel like it and there are
'bad' people about. Of course, not all bad people, just some bad people. No
one really explains why this bad guy but not that bad guy; but if someone in
the US media did try to expose our real geopolitical purposes, it wouldn't
matter: we'd all be watching re-runs of Band of Brothers.

Anyway no one tell John I said this stuff. I love his painting.

Vince



On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 1:54 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> 
wrote:

> Good stuff, Larry, and many returns to John!
>
> My children and I are plowing through the DVD box set of Band of Brothers
> during this spring break, one episode each evening. A bit too US-centric 
> but
> not bad, kind of "Saving Private Ryan" but more in-depth.
>
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://www.greatpix.eu
> http://www.nathanfoto.com
>
> Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 4, 2010, at 7:32 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>
> > I hate to perseverate on the WW2 theme but this is unlike any of the
> other
> > posts.
> >
> > Yesterday I attended the 87th birthday of John Sekelsky, one of the last
> > surviving airmen who flew Flying Fortresses over Germany during the war.
> > During the height of the hostilities as many as 1000 B-17s, each carrying
> a
> > crew of 10 men, would fly in a single raid. Of the 20,000 or more airmen
> who
> > flew these planes, only a handful are still alive. John is one of the
> > fortunate ones.
> >
> > Unlike many of the combat vets, mostly foot soldiers, who are reluctant
> to
> > talk about wartime experiences, the former airmen are quite verbal. John
> is
> > a talented painter and painted pictures of many of his most memorable
> > experiences - at least as he remembers them.
> >
> >
> > Here is John greeting guests at his party, glass in hand.
> >
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/John+Sekelsky.JPG.html
> >
> >
> > He was part of the entertainment too.
> >
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Sekelsky+and+accordian.JPG.html
> >
> >
> > A painting of his B-17 on fire returning from a raid on Berlin.
> >
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Burning+B-17.JPG.html
> >
> >
> > Larry Z
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
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