Poetry in MI-5 and Mr Nelson from Brother Martin

At the end of an episode of the TV series "MI-5", the Harry Pearce character reads these lines (Season 3, Episode 4):
“Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence"

The contribution to the plot is that Pearce's daughter used to hate him, but had a heart-to-heart chat with dad and forgave him.

Smart use of good poetry is a nice touch in a show.  A fuller quote from the poem "A Prayer for my Daughter" by William Butler Yeats is

"Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still."

This is the 9th of 10 stanzas, so if you look up the poem, do not expect the poem to start with these lines.

What really made this line stand out for me was the phrase "radical innocence."  My high school English teacher Mr. Guy Nelson would hand out mimeograph sheets in our class that would have quotes from a book entitled, "Radical Innocence."  That is a catchy phrase.  It stuck with me over the years.  The book he was quoting was Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel (1961) by Ihab Hassan.  The Brother Martin High School English department did a fine job and I am grateful for the education I received from them.  Mr. Guy Nelson was with Brother Martin for 43 years before retiring.

The greatness of poetry is that it strikes a chord, resonating within us, making us pause, think, and feel.

Robert

PS
The Numb3rs season 3 finale, episode 24, The Janus List,  ended with Judd Hirsch quoting these lines of poetry:
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
[...snip...]
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.

The writers picked some lines from the end of Siegfried Sassoon's poem, "The Death Bed"

Man On Fire

I saw the move Man On Fire recently on DVD from Netflix.  I've seen it before and remembered it was a fun action film, starring Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken. Watching it agains was very enjoyable.  I did not remember it had Dakota Fanning.  I was so impressed with the film that I purchased the novel on which it was based, Man on Fire by A.J. Quinnell.  The book is out of print, but is available through Amazon.  The book was a page turner!  In the book, the hero, Creasy, is ex-Foreign Legion instead of ex-CIA and the setting is Italy instead of Mexico.  The Creasy character was great.  I purchased the sequel book, The Perfect Kill by A.J. Quinnell and found it to be a page turner as well.  I've now  ordered the third book in the series. If you like action/adventure books, you might enjoy Quinnell.

Robert

Movie Review: Get on Up

"Get on Up" is about James Brown, the singer.  This is an amazingly good show.  It has a great cast, great directing, great script, great music, and a great story.  Besides being entertained, I was impressed at the quality of the work that went into this film.  I recommend the show.

Robert

Movie Review of America: Imagine the World Without Her

I liked the film by Dinesh D'Souza, "America: Imagine the World Without Her."  The core of the film is the analysis of a number of criticisms leveled against America.  The movie starts out asking what the world would be like without America.  A scene from the American Revolution is enacted where George Washington is killed by a sniper.  Next, a number of American icons are shown dissolving. Then we are introduced to a lady who explains why she wished America never came into existence.  We get to see her and hear her explanation on why America is terrible.

We do not see a portrayal of what the world would be like without America.  In this sense, the packaging for the movie was flawed.  We hear a number of people present different arguments for America having a bad effect on world history.  These are real people who think the world would be better off if America did not exist.

The narrator, Dinesh D'Souza, then presents the complaints in a list and begins addressing the complaints. I have heard many of these complaints before, since America's critics are relentless.  But I have not seen a rebuttal of these complaints.  There are numerous scenes enacted, so this is not just D'Souza as a talking head.  I liked seeing a coherent rebuttal of these tiresome complaints about the imperfections of the people who built this nation.  There are no perfect people.

It was very revealing to learn of the impact of Saul Alinsky on both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  I did not know that Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis on Saul Alinsky.  Here's a bit from Wikipedia on the thesis:
"The thesis offered a critique of Alinsky's methods as largely ineffective, all the while describing Alinsky's personality as appealing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_senior_thesis

The movie was encouraging when providing a rebuttal to many criticisms of America, and very revealing of the influences upon leaders like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  It is true, by the way, that Saul Alinsky truly did dedicate his book, "Rules for Radicals," to Lucifer.  I checked out that fact and can confirm it.

You do leave the film wondering why they said to imagine the world without America, and then did not pursue that line of thought.  I thought that premise was distracting.  Then I thought about how many people interviewed expressed the desire that America not exist.  There are people working to tear down America. We see and hear a few in this film.  I can see the point being stressed by the producers, but the packaging of the film is still a bit distracting.

Overall, it was a good film.  I was glad I went to see it.

Robert