Mitch Rapp and the book ‘Total Power’ by Kyle Mills

Kyle Mills continues the Mitch Rapp series of books (book sequence here) created by Vince Flynn with the nineteenth (19th) book in the series, the sixth written by Mills. With Total Power, we see a threat to the United States power grid from ISIS (sometimes called ISIL, Daesh, or more simply, IS). The book unfolds with traditional terrorist suspense and a splash of the typical lack of political will, with a stronger bit of terrorism skill baked in.

(Kyle Mills, shown here, wrote Total Power as his sixth book in the Mitch Rapp series created by Vince Flynn).

The first movements of the story within Total Power introduce the political intrigue associated with the cost of infrastructure updates to the power grid in the United States, along with the vulnerability of the network if a knowledgeable actor with evil intent along with the proper knowledge planned to exploit what weaknesses exist in the system. The underlying issue of coordinated attacks of strategic execution could plunge the United States in darkness for well beyond days, weeks or months before an effective government or free market response could be forthcoming.

(Alternative covers for Total Power as written by Kyle Mills. Total Power is the 19th book in the Mitch Rapp series as created by Vince Flynn).

The second movements of the story bring Mitch Rapp, the force of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a US president nearing the end of his presidential leadership to bear on an imminent attack staged at the moment the issue is under attack. The attack, though led by ISIS, actually has a bite beyond the jihadist skill to deploy the attack. Despite an explicit effort led by Rapp and a capable team of counter-terrorists, the attempt to thwart the attack is detected ahead of the CIA trap that had been laid. The attack that both infiltrated ISIS and the United States power grid, plunged the mainland into darkness that would last for weeks or months. Effectively, the United States had been crippled with no effective ability to recover.

(Vince Flynn, shown here, created the Mitch Rapp series of books. Flynn wrote the first thirteen books in the series).

With the skills of Mitch Rapp and his team now tactically eliminated, the investigate, infiltrate and get to the knowledgeable few became the third movement of Total Power. The world of malfunctioning infrastructure, computers and communication systems down, and starvation, death and inevitable rioting with little capacity for countering the chaos became the name of the response. The means for getting to a legitimate solution that addressed the infrastructure, and those who damaged it were the odds that needed to be addressed. Would those odds be overcome? You know it would be.

That the narrative telling of Mitch Rapp moved almost strictly into ways to address a power grid attack where powerlessness to respond was at stake was unique and appreciated. This change worked for me more at a high level, though the bigger issue that I found was that there really was only one plausible way that the solution to the problem of that powerlessness was going to be resolved. That I was in tune with how things worked out earlier in the book than I wanted to know proved disappointing. As for Total Power written by Kyle Mills, I give the book 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, March 20, 2023

Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Delroy Lindo in the Spike Lee movie ‘Malcolm X’

Directed by Spike Lee with the screenplay written by Lee and Arnold Perl based on the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley as written by Alex Haley, the movie Malcolm X (1992) is our subject today. An epic biographical drama of the life of Malcolm X, the movie Malcolm X became a part of the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress in 2010.

(From left, Spike Lee as Shorty, Denzel Washington as Malcolm X and Kate Vernon as Sophia in the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X).

The 1992 film Malcolm X begins illustrating the life of the civil rights activist of the same name in rural Michigan with the burning down of the family house. X‘s parents, Earl Little and Louise Little as portrayed by Tommy Hollis and Lonette McKee, are respectively killed in a death called suicide while being committed into a mental institution. Malcolm and his siblings are placed into protective care, with the ambitions of X as a grown man dashed based on the color of his skin.

(From left, Delroy Lindo as West Indian Archie and Denzel Washington as Malcolm X in the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X).

From Boston, Massachusetts as a teenager, X has sex with Sophia as portrayed by Kate Vernon. The pair travels to Harlem, New York City, New York where West Indian Archie, as portrayed by Delroy Lindo, convinces Malcolm X to join the gangster’s criminal enterprise. As a disagreement ensues over money at the hands of West Indian Archie, Malcolm, Sophia, Shorty (as portrayed by Spike Lee), and Peg (as portrayed by Debi Mazar) take to robbery in Boston to earn money. This path leads to incarceration for four members of the group.

(From left, Ernest Thomas as Sidney, Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz and James McDaniel as Brother Earl in the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X).

Malcolm X is directed through mentorship by Baines, as portrayed by Albert Hall, to take up the teachings of Elijah Muhammad as portrayed by Al Freeman Jr. and learn the ways of Islam while also learning to resent the whites for their poor treatment of blacks. After being paroled in 1952, X meets Muhammad at the Nation of Islam (NOI) headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Six years later, marries Betty Shabazz as portrayed by Angela Bassett, with the pair parenting multiple children. X rises as a prominent speaker in the Nation of Islam, facing the reality that Muhammad had fathered many children out of wedlock and against the teachings of the faith.

(Al Freeman Jr. as Elijah Muhammad in the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X).

X rails against white violence in blaming the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy shortly after Kennedy‘s murder in November 1963. Muhammad suspends X from speaking on behalf of the Nation of Islam, whereupon Malcolm X takes a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, finding a desire to found the Organization of Afro-American Unity to spread tolerance rather than racial separation after making a formal break with the Nation of Islam. Shortly after his house was firebombed, Malcolm X would be shot in the Audubon Ballroom by Nation of Islam followers including Talmadge X Hayer as portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito.

(Giancarlo Esposito as Talmadge X Hayer in the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X).

The film closes with tributes to Malcolm X the man by Martin Luther King Jr., Ossie Davis and Nelson Mandela.  As quoted here, the Spike Lee “biopic of legendary civil rights leader Malcolm X brings his autobiography to life with an epic sweep and a nuanced message.” I grant the movie Malcolm X by director/screenwriter Spike Lee 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Ed Harris in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Absolute Power’

Starring in the movie Absolute Power (1997) wasn’t enough for Clint Eastwood, who produced and directed the movie based on the 1996 David Baldacci novel also named Absolute Power. This crime drama is filled with action and political intrigue involving the United States president, a billionaire, a master thief and what happens when those elements collide.

(From left, Melora Hardin as Christy Sullivan and Gene Hackman as President Alan Richmond in the Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power).

Absolute Power opens with master thief Luther Whitney having broken into the Washington DC area mansion of billionaire Walter Sullivan to steal, at minimum, from the bedroom vault of the man portrayed by E.G. Marshall. Whitney, as portrayed by Clint Eastwood, finds himself forced to hide in the bedroom vault with one-way mirror of the Virginia mansion when  Christy Sullivan returns to the bedroom on a drunken rendezvous with inebriated U.S. President Alan Richmond. Whitney watches as Richmond becomes sexually violent towards Sullivan, with Sullivan wounding the president with a letter opener in self-defense. Melora Hardin and Gene Hackman portrayed Christy Sullivan and President Richmond, respectively.

(From left, Scott Glenn as Bill Burton, Judy Davis as Gloria Russell and Dennis Haysbert as Tim Collin in the Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power).

U.S. Secret Service agents Bill Burton and Tim Collin burst in when the president screams out in distress. Christy Sullivan is fatally shot when Burton and Collin, respectively portrayed by Scott Glenn and Dennis Haysbert, see Sullivan poised to stab Alan Richmond a second time. Presidential Chief of Staff Gloria Russell, as portrayed by Judy Davis, arrives to guide the secret service agents in staging the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong. Whitney goes undiscovered through much of this staging, not being discovered until making what turns out to be a successful escape from the scene of the crimes.

(From left, Ed Harris as Seth Frank and Clint Eastwood as Luther Whitney in the Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power).

Portrayed by Ed Harris, Detective Seth Frank leads the police investigation into the Christy Sullivan death that had been staged to look like a burglary gone wrong. Whitney becomes a prime suspect in the investigation, which brings Luther Whitney’s estranged daughter Kate Whitney, as portrayed by Laura Linney, into the storyline.

(From left, E.G. Marshall as Walter Sullivan and Gene Hackman as President Alan Richmond in the Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power).

Luther Whitney had a mind to flee the country in the aftermath of his escape from the Sullivan mansion. Becoming angry when seeing Alan Richmond offer an expression of empathy to Walter Sullivan following Christy Sullivan’s death that points to the cover-up, Luther Whitney changes course to one of proving the duplicity of Alan Richmond to Walter Sullivan. The portrayal of that, combined with the motivations and actions underpinning Richmond, Walter Sullivan, Bill Burton, Tim Collin, Michael McCarty as portrayed by Richard Jenkins, and others, offer a compelling line of intrigue and tension around how the competing end games will work themselves out.

(From left, Laura Linney as Kate Whitney and Richard Jenkins as Michael McCarty in the Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power).

William Goldman proved a capable screenwriter in adapting Absolute Power for the movies. The ride offered intrigue, suspense and emotional stakes to allow me to recommend this movie for viewing. I give Absolute Power as directed and produced by Clint Eastwood 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, December 9, 2023

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone in the Martin Scorsese movie ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Set primarily in Osage County, Oklahoma, the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is based largely on the David Grann book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. That intrigue around the murders of a Native American tribe relocated to Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas with negotiated mineral rights led to government sanctioned theft, racism, and at least tacit sanctioning of murder against Osage Indians generally is where the book and the movie begin to intersect. The Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, as a growing investigative service, provides another intersection point.

(From left, Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, Scott Shepherd as Byron Burkhart, Robert De Niro as William King Hale, Katherine Willis as Myrtle Hale and Delani Chambers as Willie Hale in the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

With movie writing credits to Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, the murdering of Osage people for oil rights on a one-by-one basis is the focus. Prior to the realization of this, the introduction of a modicum of Osage cultural tradition with the burial of the a ceremonial pipe, mourning their descendants’ assimilation into white American society. Sharing the yearly “flower moon” phenomenon of Oklahoma fields of bloom, we soon see several Osage dancing among oil gushing from the ground in their territory. Assuming the Osage “incompetent” to manage money in the American sense of it, Osage are assigned allotments of money in full and half-blood members headrights, which cannot be sold and transfer through inheritance to relatives upon death. In addition to graft that is addressed yet is not central to the movie, an incentive for untimely deaths had been created for unscrupulous whites.

(From left, Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle Burkhart and Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart in the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

It is with this background that we meet Ernest Burkhart, as portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Having returned from World War One service unintelligent and greedy, Ernest moves in with his brother, Byron Burkhart as portrayed by Scott Shepherd, and his uncle William King Hale as portrayed by Robert De Niro. It’s on the family ranch that we learn of Hale‘s giving gifts to the Osage and speaking their language while serving in a neglectful law enforcement capacity. The depths of Hale‘s conniving against that proposed interest includes suggesting to Ernest Burhart‘s that his nephew strike up a romance with Mollie Kyle, who takes the Burkhart surname when Ernest and Molly marry in a ceremony with Osage and Roman Catholic elements. Lily Gladstone portrayed Mollie Kyle Burkhart, with Mollie’s relationship with Ernest Burkhart becoming a central focus of the movie.

(From left, Cara Jade Myers as Anna Brown, Tantoo Cardinal as Lizzie Q, Jillian Dion as Minnie Smith and Janae Collins as Reta Smith in the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

The criminal enterprise elements of the movie grow from here into what we see to be patterns of attack on the wealth and people of the Osage nation in general and Mollie Kyle Burkhart‘s family specifically. The patterns of attack on Lizzie Q, Anna Brown, Minnie Smith and Reta Smith, as portrayed by Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Jillian Dion and Janae Collins, respectively, being front and center in the murderous plots. It is the escalating plot geared at Bill Smith‘s two wives (Minnie and Reta) and Ernest‘s wife (Molly), in addition to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot that occurred with an arguably equivalent impunity, led to the Osage tribe’s council seeking reprieve in Washington DC against the corrupt forces in play on the Osage reservation, including a direct appeal to United States president Calvin Coolidge. Jason Isbell portrayed Bill Smith.

(From left, Jesse Plemons as Thomas Bruce White Sr., Tatanka Means as John Wren, John Lithgow as Prosecutor Peter Leaward and Brendan Fraser as W.S. Hamilton in the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

Despite of and in the face of these developments, William King Hale escalates his criminality further with the killing of Henry Roan, Mollie‘s first husband as portrayed by William Belleau, the ordering of the murdering of his own hired killers, and unsuccessfully attempting to murder Ernest after he testifies against his uncle. The Bureau of Investigation inquest by agents Thomas Bruce White Sr. and John Wren leads to a trial litigated by Prosecutor Peter Leaward. W.S. Hamilton defends William King Hale and Ernest Burkhart. Jesse Plemons, Tatanka Means, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser portrayed White Sr., Wren, Leaward and Hamilton, respectively.

(From left, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro on set for the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon).

The means of bringing together the larger questions of the fates of William King Hale, Ernest Burkhart, Molly Kyle Burkhart and Anna Brown through a dramatized radio program intermixed with flashback provided an unexpected and dramatically cinematic flare to the movie’s resolution. The movie reels of the Tulsa Race Riots in addition to the opening storytelling tributes to the silent movie era of cinema were appreciated artful touches at earlier parts of the movie. These elevation points raised the bar for me on what quality filmmaking truly can be. It is with these points as backdrops to the story told that I grant Killers of the Flower Moon as directed by Martin Scorsese with a highly accomplished cast 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, November 4, 2023

Sinclair Lewis and the book ‘It Can’t Happen Here’

Clearly political in its motivation and at minimum cautionary in its tone, the 1935 Sinclair Lewis novel It Can’t Happen Here was written as a warning against the possibility that fascism could rise in the United States of America. Set against the backdrop of notable European examples from the period in Germany and Italy, with many in the North American citizenry of the time oblivious to it, the work was timely then and arguably is again at the time of this review.

(Pictured here is Sinclair Lewis, writer of the political novel It Can’t Happen Here).

Concisely stated in this quotation from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the novel occurs “[d]uring the presidential election of 1936, [when] Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, observes with dismay that many of the people he knows support the candidacy of a fascist, Berzelius Windrip. When Windrip wins the election, he forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state. Jessup opposes him, is captured, and escapes to Canada.”

(Book covers for the Sinclair Lewis novel It Can’t Happen Here, which was first published in 1935).

The book It Can’t Happen Here bends towards a dystopian pessimism that highlights the baser instincts inherent in the fascist model of governing. The disdain for popular elections while subordinating individual will to the collective good are examined alongside abuses to human rights that grow more extreme as the novel continues. The dark subject matter builds while effectively offering the cautionary tale, or alarm, that the book intended.

(Sinclair Lewis, pictured here, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930).

Overall, the tone of the book coupled with the fact that it is election season at home worked for me at this time. I give It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Wil Haygood and the book ‘Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America’

Among his many legal successes arguing cases across the United States and in the south, Thurgood Marshall would be confirmed to the Supreme Court by the United States Senate after being nominated by United States President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The successful nomination was unprecedented on multiple scores, which is the subject of the Wil Haygood book Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America.

(From left, Supreme Court Justice and NAACP leader Thurgood Marshall and US President Lyndon Baines Johnson).

The five-day hearing of the U.S. Senate that confirmed Thurgood Marshall, of New York, the first African-American Supreme Court justice on July 13th, 14th, 18th, 19th and 24th, 1967 are the central timeline that Wil Haygood uses to share Marshall‘s biography. At state in Marshall‘s life story were the stakes of the American civil rights movement of the era, with Justice Marshall‘s career, preceding legal practice and social activity geared at moving the dial forward. Marshall led the legal case that legally struck down the separate-but-equal doctrine, which led to school integration (Brown v. Board of Education overturning Plessy v. Ferguson). Haygood documented scores of legal defenses for the underrepresented and unfairly attacked. These points and more established Marshall‘s candidacy for the supreme court. The establishing of that background, and the tactics used against him through the Supreme Court hearing, have been replicated in the Senate since.

(The book Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America by writer Wil Haygood was published September 15, 2015).

The Marshall nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in September 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy by southern US senators for many months. James O. Eastland of Mississippi, a noted southern US senator with a similar motivation through the Supreme Court nomination, aimed to stack the deck. The tactics of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was given notable attention through this biography as well.

(This image of Wil Haygood shows the biographer alongside the original cover for his book Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America).

There is much to recommend the story of this book from an educational and entertainment perspective. There are life lessons and philosophical approaches to life and intellect that offer insight, along with the underlying drama and contributing actions of two separate presidents in aiming to successfully nominate a qualified jurist. The history lessons in the subject matter, the tactics and the humanity of the Thurgood Marshall path to the Supreme Court helps me grant Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America as written by Wil Haygood 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid and Clancy Brown in the Gary Fleder movie ‘The Express’

The 1983 Robert C. Gallagher book Ernie Davis, The Elmira Express: The Story of a Heisman Trophy Winner tells the story of multiple firsts in the impressive college career and illness shortened life of national champion, Heisman Trophy winner and Syracuse University football player Ernie Davis. We look at the Charles Leavitt screenplay for the Gary Fleder movie The Express (2008) that came from that book.

(From left, Rob Brown as Ernie Davis and Charles S. Dutton as Willie ‘Pop’ Davis in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The story of Ernie Davis begins with Davis growing up first in Pennsylvania and, in later in Elmira, New York. It is in Elmira that a young Ernie Davis first plays runningback in an organized youth football league. A number of years later, Ben Schwartzwalder of Syracuse University recruits Davis with the support of the graduating Jim Brown, who would go on to excel with the Cleveland Browns. Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid and Darrin Dewitt Henson would portray Ernie Davis as an adult, Ben Schwartzwalder and Jim Brown.

(Coaches from left, Dennis Quaid as Ben Schwartzwalder and Clancy Brown as Roy Simmons in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The sport of college football, a legacy of racism in Dallas, Texas made tangible through threats, and the effort to play The University of Texas at the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas for the 1959 championship on January 1, 1960 unfolds in the telling of The Express. An injured leg and biased officiating interject, as does further insult at the recognition banquet following the game. The outcome of both the game and the follow-up indicates something uplifting in the face of ugliness.

(From left, Rob Brown as Ernie Davis, Omar Benson Miller as Jack Buckley, Nicole Beharie as Sarah Ward and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Marie Davis in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The story of Davis getting drafted by the Cleveland Browns, then of the National Football League (NFL), leads to the revelation of a life threatening disease during preseason efforts to get into condition for the coming season. The formal revelation by then owner Art Modell that the disease would keep Davis from formally fulfilling his professional dream happened matter-of-factly in the middle of practice. The formal announcement of the outcome was addressed with more class. Davis‘ recruiting of Floyd Little to Syracuse mirrors his own recruitment there with the aid of Jim Brown. Saul Rubinek and Chadwick Boseman portrayed Modell and Little, respectively.

(From left, Dennis Quaid as Ben Schwartzwalder and Darrin Dewitt Henson as Jim Brown in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

As presented in passing in the movie, former United States President John F. Kennedy offered praise for Davis after the football player as a player and citizen following Davis‘ death. The tribute gave dignity to the sympathetic portrayal of Ernie Davis. I give The Express as directed by Gary Fleder 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, September 2, 2023

Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Edward Herrmann in the Warren Beatty movie ‘Reds’

A love triangle mixes with the epic historical drama of the life and career of socialist, journalist and activist John Reed today. Reed reported on the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days That Shook the World, which held a large sway in the Warren Beatty directed and written movie Reds (1981). Trevor Griffiths also wrote Reds along with Beatty.

(From left, Edward Herrmann as Max Eastman, Warren Beatty as John Reed and Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The movie Reds begins when suffragist and journalist Louise Bryant, married to another man at the 1915 encounter, meets radical John Reed for the first time at a lecture in Portland, Oregon. The intellectually engaging meeting convinces Bryant, portrayed by Diane Keaton, to join Reed, as portrayed by Warren Beatty, in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York. The womanizing ways of Reed is at odds with the idealism of his writing for Bryant.

(Maureen Stapleton as Emma Goldman in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The opportunity to meet Emma Goldman and Eugene O’Neill in the district folds into conversations on writing and the radical feelings of the group. O’Neill and Bryant develop intimate feelings for each other in this period, as the strikes of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) alongside the St. Louis, Missouri Democratic presidential convention stirs Reed‘s passions even further. The subsequent marriage of Reed and Bryant hits the difficulty of Reed‘s infidelity, prompting professional, interpersonal and political turmoil between the pair. Goldman and O’Neill were portrayed by Maureen Stapleton and Jack Nicholson.

(Jack Nicholson as Eugene O’Neill in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The story of John Reed‘s health, losing a kidney in the midst of this, leads to another instinct to head to Russia as the possibility of what became the Russian Revolution. Professionally reuniting for that trip, Bryant too experiences the ideals of that revolution. The love the pair once experienced reignites, at least until Reed and other communist sympathizers in America break ideologically. Practitioners of the Bolshevik ideology in the Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia put Reed to work as a propagandist. With help from O’Neill, Bryant aims to reconnect with Reed while the two are kept from having any legitimate communication. The parallel storylines of history and love were messy and difficult. The way both stories come to resolution reflect the successes of the story.

(From left, Paul Sorvino as Louis C. Fraina and Jerzy Kosinski as Grigory Zinoviev in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

There is so much more to the tale of Reds than what this introduction to the story of the movie does in more than three hours of movie. Airport Friend rates the movie in the top ten movies he has ever seen. I grant the movie Reds and directed and partly written by Warren Beatty 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in the Christopher Nolan movie ‘Oppenheimer’

It’s not every day that a biographical thriller set against the backdrop of history can build excitement ahead of its release like the Christopher Nolan produced and directed movie Oppenheimer (2023) has. Detailing the role American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer had in the development of the atomic bomb, Nolan wrote this movie based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. The dynamic personality of Oppenheimer the man comes through with an energy equal to the explosive with which the Manhattan Project developed.

(From left, Emily Blunt as Katherine ‘Kitty’ Oppenheimer and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer).

The movie-making personality of Christopher Nolan shines through his telling of the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, with the theoretical physicist’s portrayal being offered by Cillian Murphy. Alternating between black-and-white and color, using a non-linear model of accentuating the personal drama of a slowly growing explosion of the revealing the contradictions within the scientist’s personality, it strikes me as relevant that I find a parallel to the Nolan film Memento (2000), reviewed here, in the experience.

(From left, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss and Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush in the Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer).

The movie offers much based in fact surrounding the Oppenheimer biography from Cambridge, England to Los Alamos, New Mexico. We see Oppenheimer‘s security clearance hearing in 1954. Finally we Lewis Strauss‘ confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce from 1959. Then there are the relationships with Jean Tatlock, Katherine Oppenheimer, Frank Oppenheimer, Haakon Chevalier, Leslie Groves and scientists such as Patrick Blackett, Niels Bohr, Edward Teller, Isidor Isaac Rabi, David Hill and Albert Einstein.

(From left, Dylan Arnold as Frank Oppenheimer and Matt Damon as Leslie Groves in the Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer).

The epic quality of the J. Robert Oppenheimer‘s relevance stands shoulder to shoulder with the accomplishment in atomic energy, his philosophical positions on energy and political justice, and the tangled web these played on those levels alongside the notions of his public and private reputations explored with a force equal to a Christopher Nolan movie as well as the reality so strongly present in biography by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

(From left, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer).

The story of the Trinity test, or the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, is the story that makes the Oppenheimer movie. The many layers of complexity for Oppenheimer the man, both interpersonally for him with wife Katherine Oppenheimer and mistress Jean Tatlock, thunder home in the growing tension of the detonation of the nuclear device as presented in moments of quiet and explosive sound that lead to an enthusiastic aftermath of celebration following the success of the Trinity test. That Nolan‘s treatment of the Oppenheimer story bring us back to Lewis Strauss and Albert Einstein, narratively structuring the threat of Germany, the meaning of Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan, and the decision of Harry S. Truman to end the Pacific conflict, within the story of Strauss, interpersonal matters of the heart, and the nature of celebrity and power with Einstein all fascinate me.

(Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer at his moment of triumph in the Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer. Note the US flag in reverse profile; Is this a sign of the ‘attack forward’ honor on military uniforms or a subtle commentary on the conflicted feelings of Oppenheimer at the moment of his biggest success?).

There’s little doubt for me that the power of the movie Oppenheimer is high. Offering this review 3.5-days after watching the movie leaves me a bit transfixed by the question of whether I am undervaluing or overvaluing my admiration for the achievement of what I saw in the film. Regardless, I grant Oppenheimer as produced, directed and written for film by Christopher Nolan 4.5-stars a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Mitch Rapp and the book ‘Lethal Agent’ by Kyle Mills

Kyle Mills continues the Mitch Rapp series of books (book sequence here) created by Vince Flynn with the eighteenth (18th) book in the series, the fifth written by Mills. With Lethal Agent, we see a familiar Mitch Rapp book focusing on the man, the myth and the legend of combatting terrorism while facing corrupt politicians bent on fighting the apparatus intent on fighting it.

(Kyle Mills succeeded Vince Flynn in writing books with Mitch Rapp as a central character. Mills wrote Lethal Agent, his fifth foray into the Mitch Rapp series).

Lethal Agent cleverly plays upon two concepts in speaking to the subject matter addressed with plot points based in Iraq and Yemen. The threat placed in front on the good people of the world and the folks fighting terrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was of a biological nature; using the fear of unleashing chemical warfare was a first concept of a lethal agent used in this story.

(Alternative book covers for Lethal Agent as written by Kyle Mills).

The second involved Mitch Rapp, continuing his role as a contractor for the CIA while at odds with himself and his current love interest over what his future is as a fighter of terrorism. When the odds get heavy during a United States presidential election season, the nature of the threat includes a drug trafficking pipeline from Mexico to the United States that overlaps with the biological terror storyline. The means for fighting the biological threat offers a latitude to Rapp not seen at the level presented in the Lethal Agent novel.

(Vince Flynn created the Mitch Rapp series of books, writing the first 13 books in the series).

Mitch acts with explicit and lethal authority in fighting a bioterrorism theater in Mexico that is brand new; the beauty of the approach is that old style Rapp appears again. That we’ve been here and done this, for the individual reader, is either great in getting to see this again or awful for seeing this again. Invoking foreign scientists was a positive turn for Lethal Agent written by Kyle Mills, thus helping me to rate the book 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, July 22, 2023