We have a close friend named Debbie. In 1939, her mother Marianne Schorsch was only fifteen years old when she was put on board a special train (kindertransport) as she was in danger of death from the Nazis. It was an Englishman named Nicholas Winton who organized the escape trip for Marianne and hundreds of other children, to save them from the Nazis. Although Marianne is now passed on, my wife and I knew that gentle sweet woman for many years.

My eyes were glued to the big screen every minute of this very interesting film 'Killers of the Flower Moon', masterpiece of director Martin Scorcese. I didn't even take a toilet break, even though the movie is almost three and a half hours long. I hardly took a breath, or blinked my eyes, for fear of missing something important in the story. 'Yes – this film is so enthralling.

The film is based on the popular book 'Killers of the Flower Moon', written in 2017 by journalist David Grann. The book tells the true story of a white businessman and self-proclaimed "true friend" of the Osage Nation (a native tribe). The tribe became rich when oil was discovered on their reservation. The scheme devised by some white men was to marry landowners and then kill them to get their estates. Women were the owners for the most part, as the Osage tribe was a matriarchal one. The story focuses on one native family – the mother (played by Tantoo Cardinal as Lizzie Q) and her four daughters, and what happens to them, especially one daughter who is not yet married.

There are three main characters in this film – Robert de Niro as William Hale, Leonardo diCaprio as Hale's nephew, Ernest Burkhart, and Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle – Burkhart's wife. All three give an excellent performance, and in my opinion, Lily Gladstone is on a par with de Niro and diCaprio. Ernest Burkhart is a dullard, and Hale cleverly exploits him, exerting his influence on him strongly. Mollie meets Ernest, her handsome taxi driver, and they fall in love. Therefore, it was not difficult for Hale to convince Ernest to marry Mollie. One by one, her mother and sisters die so that only Mollie is left alive.

Hale then plans to kill Mollie Kyle, and get her estate for his own family through Ernest. There is a twist in the story because Ernest and Mollie are in love, and the relationship between them is central to the story. I will not tell you more about this story now, but you will see the rotten corruption that the Americans, and especially the farmer Hale, played on the natives in the twenties in the past century, through the lens of this horrible story.

Gladstone's opinion

Lily Gladstone (Mollie in the film) has aboriginal blood, so her opinion about the film is very interesting.

“I struggle to think of another film that has been so true to indigenous women. I love my sisters in the film, and they are like family to me,” said Lily.

Mollie's sisters, native actresses Cara Jade Myers as Anna Brown, JaNae Collins as Reta Smith and Jillion Dion as Minnie Smith, are killed for their money.

The scenes with the sisters and their mother speaking their native language together are very powerful. In fact, every scene that shows the Osage language and culture is exciting. Rarely do you see such a realistic representation of the native people in Hollywood.

“Mollie survived but Kyle's three sisters did not. We all know someone, someone in our family, someone in our inner circles, someone we grew up with and we don't know where they are,” Lily said poignantly. With that, they connect the life as shown in the film and the life as it is today, in terms of mistreatment of indigenous people in America.

Conclusion

You can understand this wonderful film on at least two levels. You can take it as it is, that is to say that it features first class actors at work, under the direction of some of the best directors in the world, revealing an interesting story, set in Oklahoma a hundred years ago. It is a tangle of scheming, with love, murder and money as ingredients mixed together to present you with a delicious soup. The audience would be very happy with the film, and that read on it. But another meaning can be superimposed on this original reading, when you recognize that this is not just a work of imagination, but a work based on bitter truth. That is that there was racial and sexual discrimination against the indigenous people, and their lives were of little value. With that background, it was easy for greedy and immoral Americans to kill indigenous women to steal their money. This corruption was widespread, and did not stop until an FBI detective, Tom White (played by Jesse Plemons), came to investigate the murders.

The film steers the light towards the situation of the indigenous people in their own country, almost a hundred years ago. And it raises this question: are the conditions forindigenous people better now than they were then? Unfortunately, that question is not easy to answer! But perhaps, with this film, this important question will be asked more often to the appropriate authorities.

Bottom line: Don't hesitate to see this movie as soon as possible!

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Bono said 'Hallelujah' was the best song ever. Maybe he's right!

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen wrote 'Hallelujah' over a period of five years. But the song didn't gain much recognition at first, like Cohen himself - that wouldn't happen for them for a long time. The story of the song and its composer are intertwined, and co-directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine use that strong connection to create a documentary.

Late Starter

Leonard Cohen was an unusual rock star. This Canadian poet and novelist was 40 years old when Judy Collins (who made Cohen's song 'Suzanne' popular) advised him, saying: "You can't stay hidden any more; you have to sing in public.” Cohen could not sing or play music at the time. But after a while, he became very successful as a musician.

Rejection

Cohen was around fifty years old in 1984, when he finished his song 'Hallelujah'. He collaborated with producer John Lissauer and backing singer Jennifer Warnes to prepare a new album, entitled 'Various Positions'. He sent it to Columbia Records, and Columbia president Walter Yetnikoff asked Cohen to meet with him. Yetnikoff said to him: "Look, Leonard, we know you're great, but we don't know if you are any good!" Yetnikoff refused to release the album. It is noteworthy that there were three great songs on that album - 'Hallelujah', 'Dance Me to the End of Love' and 'Be Your Will'!

John Cale, Glen Hansart agus Jeff Buckley

'Hallelujah' was originally a long song. But when he was working on a Cohen tribute album called 'I'm your Fan', the famous musician John Cale made comprehensive edits to the song before singing it on the album. But there was still an ingredient missing – in the name of Jeff Buckley!

Jeff Buckley was an Irish-American (son of the great musician Tim Buckley, a friend of Cohen), and he started working as a roadie for Glen Hansart and 'The Commitments', when they were on tour in the United States in 1991. Hansart encouraged him to play and sing his own music in the Sin-é cafe in Manhattan. By the way, an Irishman named Shane Doyle opened Sin-É cafe in 1989.

Although the great musician Jeff Buckley released a version of 'Hallelujah' (based on John Cale's arrangement) in 1994 on his album 'Grace', 'Hallelujah' did not reach the top of the charts until 1998. Undoubtedly, Buckley’s accidental death in 1997 brought the song to public attention. When they heard it, they then realized how beautiful 'Hallelujah' was, and especially Buckley's arrangement.

Comeback

Cohen spent 5 years, from 1994 to 1999, in a Zen monastery in Los Angeles. Cohen was regularly plagued by depression, and sought refuge. Eventually, he realized that his cure was not to be had in the monastery and left it. He then released a couple of less successful albums - one in 2001 (Ten New Songs) and another in 2004 (Dear Heather).

But when his manager, Kelley Lynch, stole most of his money, he decided to make a comeback at the age of 73. He put a band together, and they went on tour in 2007. Tickets for their concert were sold out quickly, and they had to add other dates to their schedule. Cohen continued to work like that until 2013, and he was more successful than ever.

From Strength to Strength

The hit film 'Shrek' (2001) had two very popular versions of 'Hallelujah': John Cale's version in the film, and Rufus Wainwright's version on the film's soundtrack.

In 2004, KD Lang released a version of Hallelujah on her album 'Hymns of the 49th Parallel' and sang it at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Alexandra Burke's arrangement, winner of the fifth series of 'The X Factor', went to the top of the charts at Christmas 2008. Then, almost every singer in every talent show around the world started singing 'Hallelujah'.

"We spoke to the busker you see in our film outside the underground train station in Manhattan," said director Goldfine. “And she told us that if she's having a hard time getting an audience and there's no money coming in, she starts playing 'Hallelujah'. She says it works every time.”

What would you say now, Walter Yetnikoff?

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A detective program recently came out on the Peacock streaming service in the United States. I read a review that piqued my interest and watched the first episode of the series. It instantly reminded me of other detective programs that used to run on TV in the old days – (days) when we only had live TV. We used to know the program schedule by heart, and we knew with certainty what day and time 'Columbo' or 'The Rockford Files' would be on the TV. We all looked forward to the new episodes every week, followed by conversations at home and in the office. What was so special about those programs? I think the main characters had magnetic personalities in different ways. Also, both programs had a layout that was not like other detective programs that used to run (in those days).

Rockford and Columbo!

In 'The Rockford Files', you witness the private life of the detective. You see Rockford in his untidy mobile home on the beach in Malibu in California, and you get to know Rockford himself, his family (his father) and his friends (policeman Denis Becker and ex-prisoner Angel). The person himself comes first in this episode, and after that comes his detective work, which is also quite interesting.

In Columbo's case, on the other hand, you don't see him at home at all. But he has exceptional qualities as a detective. You see a murder happen at the beginning of each episode, and then Columbo targets the murderer. Columbo seems forgetful, and the criminal underestimates his abilities. But when Columbo is about to leave after asking the criminal his questions, and that same criminal is finally breathing a sigh of relief, Columbo turns back to him/her and asks him/her the critical question, which starts like this: “Oh and one more thing…”

But what about the new program 'Poker Face'?