I rate this classic in Christian Mysticism not for what it is or says but what it is not and certainly does not say. First of all it is not a Jungian mythology text nor does it have anything in common with works by(the likes of)Joseph Campbell who was an avowed and proud atheist. Studying works...often profound as they are...of Mircea Eliade will construct and fortify the very obstacles that obscure/prevent radical Grace Experience Otto terms "The Mysterium Tremendum". Would-be adepts are often quick to criticize theological genius of(a)saint-like Thomas Aquinas. Yet conveniently they forget he himself dismissed The SUMMA as little more than preparatory Guide for sincere faith desperately in need of REASON's crutch(from Crux). Medieval theologians often taxed the would-be Pure of Heart with a nominalist/semantic riddle: God was NO-THING...therefore totally beyond knowledge categories and expressible human experience. So what? Ants have no categories for "religious" illumination regarding humanity nor individuals. Yet the realities are; sometimes they CROSS paths. The point: Otto's book is not a place to begin. (Maybe a term in prison; a tour of combat; or a long isolation among uncorrupted children might do). St. John of the Cross' DARK NIGHT
OF THE SOUL might do because it may just discourage foolish meddling about where "angels fear to tread." Is this a warning? Of course.

Padre Pio was stigmatist who spent most of his life hearing Confession(ie: ministering to the reality of Sin).And celebrating ultimate Christian Mystery:HOLY MASS-- where Christ --LOGOS and Second Hypostasis of the Divinely Revealed Trinune God--humbly "empties" Himself into simplest signs of Bread & Wine to COMMUNicate not merely the Idea of the Holy, but Holiness (Himself).Protestants deny this.Many would-be gnostics defy it in absurd paradox of desiring...like Eve...fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; rather than of Life. Mother Theresa was undoubtedly a mystic. She said...to my knowledge...little about "numenous"experiences, because she was too busy (ad)ministering moments of Grace to destitute poor. However: she is said to have said she could see the Face of Christ in these otherwise abandoned. Is this MYSTERIUM TREMENDOM at its most ironic, absurd and True? Again: Otto's book is what it is. Don't forget what it isn't, or shouldn't be......

These cartoons--animated features--are astounding. They were produced during WWII(1941-1943)and some of the themes involve SUPERMAN assisting Allies in battle with the AXIS powers. Max and Dave Fleischer are the driving force who creatively superintended work of more than 600 artists and technical specialists on cartoons costing a much as $100,000 per feature! To this astonishing budget was brought the radical technique of what is now termed ROTOSCOPE. Ralph Bakshi perfected this combination of LIVE ACTION and ANIMATION using it to film such underrated masterpieces as THE LORD of THE RINGS;WIZARDS & AMERICAN POP. But the Fleischer Brothers were innovators of this startling mode of film making that predates CGI fx by almost 40 years and...with exception of Disney's epochal FANTASIA(1940)...employs sophistication in "background" lay-out not seen for more than another decade in seminal matte work of sci-fi classics, THIS ISLAND EARTH(1955) and(Disney assisted)FORBIDDEN PLANET(1956). These cartoons are technically amazing.

Thematically the stories are eclectically dazzling. Some are typical Superman vs. Monsters (The Arctic Giant views like Ray Bradbury's "Foghorn" BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS). Others are rad-bad scientists/terrorists (with Star Wars weaponry):THE BULLETEERS(one of the best);ELECTRIC EARTHQUAKE( PC precursor featuring a vengeance-driven indian/Native American--who attempts to(a la Lex Luther)earthquake Manhattan out of existence. THE MUMMY STRIKES and(genuinely scary)THE UNDEGROUND WORLD are horror stories. There are episodes that feature Superman helping to win WWII(JUNGLE DRUMS is "Heart of Darkness" take-off where Superman
rescues Lois about to be burned at the stake in a ritual sacrifice superintended by an occult Nazi "high priest".This one might also offend PC'ers with its depiction of African warriors as cannibals under sway of Nazis; but the closing frame showing HITLER enraged by Allied bombing/interdiction of German submarines leaves no doubt about who the battle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and THE AMERICAN WAY is being waged against.

Some viewers mention predictability of the episodes.
I disagree.The format: FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET...MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE etc. does introduce each cartoon.But, given that each one is only 8 minutes long, the fact that an entire story is presented, developed and climatically resolved is itself nothing short of a dizzying, artistic triumph. SUPERMAN himself is portrayed...George Reeves SUPERMAN incarnation seems to be based on the cartoon image...as MAN OF STEEL. But Kryptonite is not ever his Achilles' heal. Lex Luther is never arch-enemy and major aspects of the mythology...((Superman is raised in an orphanage. X-ray vision is used only one time in the 17 epidodes. In many stories,Superman does NOT fly: he prodigiously bounds from place to place))...are not employed. An interesting dimension of the series is characterization of Lois Lane. In a word, she is a Wonder Woman: tall, physically adept; utterly fearless, often reckless in her pursuit of TRUTH as The Daily Planet's star reporter. Though Clark Kent is portrayed as capable, "mild mannered reporter,"Lois is depicted as daringingly resourceful and Clark's professional superior.
One episode depicts her flying a plane on a spy/reporting assignment disguising her as virtual double for AMELIA EARHART. Again: the series is a fantastic find.Yes: Famous Studios picked-up the slack after the Fleischer Brothers had enough pressure in producing $100,000 cartoons. Ironically the only episode that...to me... seems artistically "off" is the first one: SUPERMAN(aka The Mad Scientist). Here animation looks a tad two dimensionally flat/uninspired(definitely not full metal jacket rotoscope effort). And the story of Superman's Kryptonian origin is undeniably rushed through incidently. Other features in 'the canon" range from GREAT to SUPERb. If you're a Superfan or video/animation buff,this series is treasure as rare as antidote to Kryptonite would be to America's mythical Man of Steel(10 stars).

There is nothing "breezy" about BREEZY STORIES. A few songs(plus a nice "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues" bonus track) essay quiet, balladeer lilt but most tunes have dark,hard-edged menace
about them. JUNKMAN is stark anti-drug wail. PORTRAIT IN BLACK VELVET;and SHE SAID,"Drive on, Driver", convey existential fear and anger. MAGDALENA celebrates "get-down" sexuality but Danny O'Keefe's version of The ETERNAL FEMININE celebrates women who "nothing like a saint" they are.The intro track, ANGEL SPREAD YOUR WINGS is perfect prelude to the story of Maggie, a little red haired Lilith.

MAD RUTH/THE BABE is probably the beeziest(most troubadourish) of the "stories". STEPPIN'OUT TONIGHT and IF YOU CAN'T BOOGIE WOOGIE (You Sure Can't Rock & Roll) while hardly "fillers", are frivolous compared with otherwise hard core, multi-textured Country-Folk-Rock that's offered both for enjoyment and...in similar tradition of masters like Dylan and McGuinn...ironic provocation. Needless to say, the musicianship is technically excellent; while Danny O'Keefe's soulful(often bitter, even angst-ridden)vocals are "pop" art in the best sense. BREEZY STORIES is musically and lyrically The Right Stuff...

THE LAST LETTERS of THOMAS MORE comprise what Soren Kierkegaard termed "Edifying" discourse. It is summons to spiritual confrontation with oneself in, and over-against radical circumstances--life perspectives or even World Order--that threaten ontological integrity and salvic destiny of THE PERSON. Our Post-Modernist (Deconstructionist) milieu epitomizes/poses this threat. This is manifest to anyone who subscribes to an essential anthropological-spiritual claim of humanity upon unique PERSONhood and Salvation.The irony is PM-moderns deny ontological integrity. [Humans create HUMAN-ity by "choices" of sexual-political orientation. These subtend COMMUNITIES whose nature superficially is materialistic,liberating and aggrandizing but whose driving force(entelechy)is SELF-APOTHEOSIS.]

To Thomas More, self-apotheosis of King Henry VIII(1509-1547)... English King declaring himself Head of the Church founded by Christ 1500 years earlier and superintended by Bishops(Popes) beginning with St. Peter...constituted radical threat to Christian Man's salvic destiny as well as rupture in World Order(Christendom). Personal-spiritual dangers of Henry's REVOLUTION (its intention profoundly altered Luther's project and hope for REFORMATION) were neither obvious nor vital to common men, power-bedazzled bureaucrats, or a craven aristocracy eager to conform to, or abet what would metastasize into New Order of the Ages. More's perspicacious understanding of Medieval God-Centered (Christ as LOGOS) society in fundamental conflict with emerging, man-as-God Centered (specifically: Henry V III)society led to his oppositon. This opposition--reluctant at first--steels adamant; and is officially adjudged treasonous defiance.For treason: Thomas More,renowned scholar,lawyer,knight; former Chancellor and personal friend and counselor to the King was beheaded on July 6,1535.

THE LAST LETTERS of THOMAS MORE consists of three parts. The first is excellent introduction by Fr. Alvaro De Silva which discusses well-known historical-religious context which led to imprisonment of Sir Thomas More in the Tower of London in April of 1534. The focus of this preface(ironically titled, GOOD COMPANY)is brief but incisive commentary on More's notion of CONSCIENCE(pp. 8-11).The latter should be studied as crucial to fair reading of the Letters and grasp of the character of the "Man for All Seasons" in the complexity and dire danger which his singular allegiance to Conscience placed him. Part two consists of 24 Letters comprising correspondance of More from the Tower of London; or concerning his imprisonment for refusal to sign the OATH abiding in the ACT of SUPREMACY. The crucial letter is number 12( August 1534; pp.72-89). Although "written" by More's daughter Margaret to her sister Alice, the missive is elaborate explication...as far as More ever stated...of Sir Thomas' understanding of CONSCIENCE (the word is cited more than 40 times). This notion is not Post-Modernist misunderstanding of Shakespeare's "To Thine Own Self Be True". To More, Conscience is a faculty of Judgement. An OBLIGATION to know and conform to the LAW(ultimately of God). [Peter Ackroyd discusses the notion of Law...as More lived and died it...in chapter 6: "Duty is the Love of the Law" in his extraordinary biography THE LIFE OF THOMAS MORE.] More's concept of concscience has nothing in common with "emotion"; belief or relativistic SELF-determination. It is in fact humble yielding to TRUTH and acting on it rightly; (or admitting one's sin in deliberate failing in Right Conduct). De Silva presents The Letters with minimal commentary reserved to technical/semantic clarification of "olde" English phraseology.

Part Three (pp.131-194) is a fascinating COMMENTARY on each Letter. Although this section is relatively short, the expertise of the author illumines and challenges readers to marvel at and respect the courage of Thomas More. Kierkegarrdian terms FEAR & TREMBLING; and PURITY of HEART is to WILL ONE THING; urge themselves upon one's realization of the terror confronting More re-echoed...centuries later...by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "How can you stand your ground when you are weak, and sensitive to pain, when the people you love are still alive when you are unprepared? What do you need to make you stronger than the interrogator and the whole trap?"

THE LAST LETTERS of THOMAS MORE may provide answers to an Age that cossets deceit and applauds/glorifies liars. This book is magnificent portrait of reluctant heroism and even more reluctant sainthood. More was an extraordinary man; yet the final Letter (written the day before his execution with a piece of charcoal)to his daughter Margaret expresses simplicity and guileless love in blessing to family and friends of high and common estate. It is touching fair well; devoid of defiance, resentment or fear. Is this not a Book for All Seasons? For students of history, philosophy; or wandering minds seeking moral anchor, it is. Why did Fr. De Silva write about Sir Thomas...canonized St. Thomas More? The answer may be in the way More lived and was able to die: AMGD-- ad maiorum Glorium Dei...for the Greater Glory Of God. (10 stars)

Christopher Lambert's Beowulf brings enough heroic "gravitas"--in what easily could've played as HIGHLANDER prequel--to make this PM Sword and Sworcery smorgasbord enjoyable. Forget about allegiance to the classic Dark Ages quest. Director Graham has broad sword stiched and blood-n-gore glued 90 minutes of well-choreographed combat and mayhem. He delivers the goods with a ferocious incarnation of GRENDEL as virtual "Monster from the Id." Nightly, the Beast raids Hrothgar's Mead Hall/Castle to slaughter hapless warriors. The inner ambience of this abattoir (which looks like a goofy concatenation of stove pipes and trash cans outside), is genuinely menacing recalling Michael Mann's haunted KEEP. Layla Roberts essays Lilith role of Grendal's Mother. She plays archetypal She-Demon, a succubus, whose purpose is to breed and nurture Evil. However, this movie has few mythological or Jungian pretensions (I hope). Here BEOWULF is a Good, Bad and extremely Ugly "boat-parade" of Monster-osity with original "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE" hero to save the day(you have to survive NIGHT by yourself)...

David Thornburg... Ian Jukes and other Marshall McLuhan disciples of the Thornburg Center for Computer/Media structured Education in what's phrased the Telematic Age...continues to wage war against THE DIGITAL DIVIDE. This is the abyss separating computer illiterates and New Adepts who are comfortable with computers and understand what they're for(and not for). Buzz words abound in this newest statement from the premier prophet of VIRTUAL SCHOOL, "the school without walls" which employs computers to expand(transform)what he labels THE CAMPFIRE;THE WATERINGHOLE; and THE CAVE. "Campfire" is traditional aegis of the Knowledge Expert. The "Wateringhole" is where peers share and "intelligent" listeners hear. The CAVE is private place of genesis: where new ideas are conceptualized and epiphanies intially tested. None of these ideas are radically new (nor claimed as such). BUT: the electronic(cyberspace)approach to them is...and consequences are epoch framing.

The Computer is electronic Pandora's Box. Problems(and pseudo-problems)it creates(will create)are manifest...to those to whom it is "alien" entity. Thornburg hopefully proposes children be trained/educated to use computers (so that computers do NOT USE them)and become adept in THREE FOUNDATIONAL LEARNING SKILLS: finding information(this requires ability to contexualize mere "data"); determining relevance & asessing accuracy. The latter two judgement faculties cannot be memorized--either through "olden days" books or blind application of robotic protocols/algorithms--but they can be learned. And they have become essential to succeed(survive)in the Brave New World of New( "telematic")work...

Socrates'story of THE CAVE condemned masses of mankind to abject ignorance or bondage before shallow illusions. "EDUCATION" comes from Latin "ex...ducere": to lead-out of "ignorance"...into TRUTH. Dr.Thornburg may exaggerate in projecting an uneducable underclass(with disasterous socio-political, moral crises inevitably resulting). But he is urgently proposing well conceived programs in Computer Literacy(which must be preceded by radical intervention in traditional literacy: if you can't read a book, you'll never negotiate "spider" Webs). Two CAVES are posited: an old one of ignorance and a re-newed one of life long learning and opportunity. Each cave is on opposite side of The Digital Divide. David Thornburg's book is a narrow bridge explaining why this BRIDGE must be expanded and digitally crossed very, very soon.(4 and 1/2 stars)

Remake of THE TIME MACHINE by a descendent of H.G.Wells himself SHOULD have been a classic in its own right. That it's not,in my estmate, is primarily fault of Director Simon Wells. Production values: high class fx; art direction; photography and the marvelous Machine itself are excellent. As is acting by the principals. Even the Morlock anti-race convey a feral savagery lacking in George Pal's light bulb-eyed cannibals. The film looks great. But,unlike Pal's which still stands as cautionary fable of man's perverse capacities for abuse of knowledge and self-destruction;(as well as a wonderous adventure) the story lacks the HUMANITY the original ultimately affirms/celebrates. The character of Filby is crucial in the original.The fact Director Wells brings Alan Young (original Filby and the Time Traveler's best friend)off the bench for a cameo confirms Wells awareness of what he was bartering away for visually dazzling spectacle over against a tale of friendship enduring Past, Present and Future. Even the character of Weena is more effective in the Pal telling because it's her transformation into CARING woman (from a feckless, mildly hedonistic child) that prods Rod Taylor to "go back to the Future"...and help rebuild mankind.

Guy Pierce is fine as "hero".But after he loses his fiancee--the second Time--one gets the sense his TIME TRAVELING is escapisim in multiple senses of the word. THE TIME MACHINE (2002)is,in fact,escapism at its best.Hardly great sci-fi, and truly disappointing when compared with George Pal's classic. Is it worth watching? Yes; but if handsome really is as handsome does, this movie is only your classic mirror thin good-looker......

Remake of THE TIME MACHINE by a descendent of H.G.Wells himself SHOULD have been a classic in its own right. That it's not,in my estmate, is primarily fault of Director Simon Wells. Production values: high class fx; art direction; photography and the marvelous Machine itself are excellent. As is acting by the principals. Even the Morlock anti-race convey a feral savagery lacking in George Pal's light bulb-eyed cannibals. The film looks great. But,unlike Pal's which still stands as cautionary fable of man's perverse capacities for abuse of knowledge and self-destruction;(as well as a wonderous adventure) the story lacks the HUMANITY the original ultimately affirms/celebrates. The character of Filby is crucial in the original.The fact Director Wells brings Alan Young (original Filby and the Time Traveler's best friend)off the bench for a cameo confirms Wells awareness of what he was bartering away for visually dazzling spectacle over against a tale of friendship enduring Past, Present and Future. Even the character of Weena is more effective in the Pal telling because it's her transformation into CARING woman (from a feckless, mildly hedonistic child) that prods Rod Taylor to "go back to the Future"...and help rebuild mankind.

Guy Pierce is fine as "hero".But after he loses his fiancee--the second Time--one gets the sense his TIME TRAVELING is escapisim in multiple senses of the word. THE TIME MACHINE (2002)is,in fact,escapism at its best.Hardly great sci-fi, and truly disappointing when compared with George Pal's classic. Is it worth watching? Yes; but if handsome really is as handsome does, this movie is only your classic mirror thin good-looker......

Long before Thomas Harris conjured anti-fantasy genius gentleman (cannibal)killer, Hannibal Lecter, he projected an ultimate homicidal political sociopath: Captain Michael Lander. Lander is Vietnam war hero who has spent six years imprisoned and tortured in Hanoi. Upon release, he returns to witness his wife sexually gyrating over a family confidant entrusted to "guard his family while he is at war". The collapse of his family follows and the stage is set for one of the most terrifying projects of VENGEANCE against this nation conceivable.

BLACK SUNDAY--to some extent reformulated by Tom Clancy in The Sum of All Fears--posits Black September engineered terrorist attack on the USA targeting THE SUPERBOWL as theater of blood for slaughter of 80,000 Americans(including the President). What drives the tale, however, is not Clancy-like spectacle in a violence-propelled high-tech manhunt; or the conflict between political ideologies of ever-victimized Israelis or dispossessed Palestinians. But rather: the character of Lander superbly played with pathos and utterly committed psychotic menace by BRUCE DERN. Dern's HATRED of the United States has transformed him into THE WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION capable of an act of annihilation against the people and homeland he once loved and suffered for as military martyr."THEY DID IT TO ME," states Landers/Dern (before Director John Frankenheimer presents rife with danger, visually stunning, apocalyptic climax)"WHY CAN'T I DO IT TO THEM!"

The movie is only a movie.Yet made in 1977,it now poses questions which ring with uncomfortable verisimilitude that's more than disconcerting in a film that strikes more than merely as entertaining cinematic study in political terrorism...

Unlike the gangster adventure film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman THE ROAD TO PERDITION presented in original graphic novel(comic)format is a Gangbuster Epic. Set in 1930--at height of Prohibition and depths of The Great Depression--Max Allan Collins renders this tragic story of former WWI decorated soldier selling his soul as ruthless hired killer for Ganglords of incipient Organized Crime (for sake of family in a bleakly unforgiving time of destitution). The anti-hero is Michael O'Sullivan. He is Enforcer("Angel of Death")to Irish mob oligarch, John Looney(in the film, Rooney).A series of violent mishaps and a young boy's(O'Sullivan's son)terribly costly curiosity frames this tale of betrayal, vengeance and SIN.

The movie evades PERDITION's theme: reality of mortal sin and damnation over against HOPE FOR REDEMPTION. Mendes--who directed Yuppie New Age Classic, American Beauty--was perhaps incapable of more than meretriciously glossing what is a complex study of evil. The fact the film ignores featured roles of archetypal figures Al Capone,Frank Nitti; Eliot Ness & The Untouchables will suprise viewers who enjoyed the film but sensed something was missing. The Jude Law/Dutch Shultz character(in the film)is typical of Hannibal Lecter psychopaths who are allowed to preen in "glamour of evil" as if conscienceless embrace of EVIL were admirable. In the graphic novel, Law's character is nameless and appears on a single page(297). Theology and iconography of Roman Catholicsm (definitively nuanced, pre-1960's middle-class mid-Western Irish sensibility)defines THE ROAD TO PERDITION as quest of a Good man choosing EVIL to protect those he loves from this Evil. "GREATER LOVE HAS NO MAN THAN ONE WHO WILL YIELD HIS VERY SOUL FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE HE LOVES"? "The movie ROAD does not dare radical Christian paradoxes evoked in this "comic" book.(A horrendous movie "novelization"--aegised by Warner Bros--is to be avoided under pain of eternal perdition). Max Allan Collins graphic novel(accompanied by starkly realistic, black and white photo-GRAPHIC art work of Richard Piers Rayner, which some reviewers condemn as too minimalist)is mythic morality fable that will startle readers with its literary "gravitas" and its gripping gangbuster epic action...