“Never apologize and never explain—it's a sign of weakness.”
-John Wayne
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".
I heard that line on TCM one day some years ago, and it made me go "WTF?!?!", cuz it just didn't make any sense to me as anything but assholism.
There's no way I could process it that made it a cool line, or wise advice, or whatever the fuck it was trying to be.
Here's my problem with the logic.
If you never apologize, you never acknowledge mistakes.
If you never acknowledge mistakes, you can never fix mistakes.
If you never fix mistakes, you're just planning on being a shitty fuckup forever, and announcing it to the world.
If you're going to announce to the world that you plan on being a shitty fuckup, then you had best never bitch about other people's fuckups, and you damned well had best not expect apologies from them.
When people DO fuck up, and don't apologize for it, then logically, you must respect them as strong willed.
So, this ultimately forces you to admire assholes like Trump.
He constantly fucks up, and never apologizes.
But, Trump is a pathetic whiner about other people.
His tweets are oozing with butt-hurt.
So, Trump admirers are rampaging hypocrites.
And so is Trump.
But, we knew that.
And John Wayne was a hypocrite, in real life, he was as dumb as Archie Bunker, and complained bitterly about hippies.
Straw man versions of 'em anyway.
Drunkenly.
If he'd been around for Twitter, he'd sound pretty much like Trump.
Maybe he'd spell better, that's about it.
So, fuck that happy horseshit, you have to clean up your fucking messes, and learn, and grow, and evolve.
Trying to be a stubborn rock doesn't make you strong, it only makes you a fucking blockhead.
Like the Trump-ublicans.
That's the endgame.
That's where you end up.
Screw John Wayne, and screw Frank S. Nugent for writing that dopey line.
And don't get your philosophy from goddamned cowboy movies.
Read a goddamned book.
No wonder this country is the way it is right now.
Holy shit.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
On apologies.
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6 comments:
America has always trafficked in hypermasculinity and always will, and politically correct movements probably will always just end up fuelling the flame, lather rinse repeat. People are complaining about police brutality towards people of color and women being raped by powerful men and the casual dismissal of such, but I can't remember a time when these *weren't* hot button issues.
Never saw that Wayne movie. I hope it's better than the infamous "The Green Berets" which is pretty weak. George Takei was in that one and didn't want to be but Wayne coaxed him into it saying he didn't care what Takei's politics were.
The quote Wayne has most been taken to task for is when he said that the Indians were "selfishly holding on to this country."
In spite of Wayne being a sillyass, I hold that "Stagecoach," "Red River," "Rio Bravo," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "True Grit" are good enough movies.
I also watched Joss Whedon's "Firefly." I ended up holding it at arm's length like I do most Whedon works that aren't "The Cabin In The Woods" or that one really good Buffy episode about the dead mother. Strong supporting cast (stronger than Buffy's actually) but the "space Western" conceits weren't that interesting and neither were the plots. The most amusing moments came from when the main character played by Nathan Fillion was being a cocky dick.
Err, I didn't mean to imply people SHOULDN'T perpetually complain about rape and racism. I'm just saying: those things will probably never be one hundred percent eradicated, so there'll always be people to complain.
Yeah, I gotta see both versions of "True Grit".
I dug Firefly.
I kinda look at is as the Han Solo prequel we should have gotten.
Yeah, bad stuff will never be eradicated, but neither will garbage, but the garbage man still has to come take it away, or it piles up.
Gotta keep kicking evil in the dick whenever possible.
Dammit, I always get intimidated by the long replies, and then when I force myself to sit down, I'm able to whittle it down to quickie replies, then I feel like a dickhead for being too quickie.
Ope, that sounded like an apology, I'm weak now.
Yeah, I run my mouth don't I...I should write shorter posts myself.
So you dug Firefly then? The best episodes were the ones with the woman with the big boobs from "Mad Men" playing a liar, and the ending episode with the evil rapist guy sneaking on board. There was a hilarious "Sword In The Stone" reference in that...or at least that's what I *think* it was. I don't know that I'll ever watch this show again but I will bother to see the movie.
Kee-rist...90s...I'm listening to a 90s album I always ignored and avoided--"The Downward Spiral" by Nine Inch Nails. I should hate it--especially "Closer," but dammit, it's not...half...bad! The lyrics are as juvenile and pissy as humanly possible but the industrial metal music was actually pretty thoughtfully put together. Dammit. I was really kind of HOPING to hate it.
"The Searchers" is a good Wayne movie too.
I don't know if you were interesting in seeing this film in the slightest but "Straight Outta Compton" oughta be called "Ice Cube The Movie." It does everything in its power to make him look like the genius of NWA. And his son plays him. Oh and they left out Dr. Dre beating a female journalist halfway to death because he didn't like her. Friggg.
Running your mouth?
Nah. Go for it.
I dig it.
You think of shit that slips my mind.
Helps flesh things out.
Re: Firefly. The one with "the evil rapist guy", was supposed to be the Firefly version of Boba-Fett. And he wouldn't have raped whatsername (Joss Whedon says so in the commentary), he was just messing with her mind.
Re: NIN. Yeah, Trent Reznor always got lumped in with the worst excesses of Marilyn Manson, but NIN never grated at me like the worst of Manson does.
And I never wanted to lay out NIN fans with an aluminum bat the way I want to with Manson fans.
Re: "The Searchers". Seen it.
Mixed feelings, but overall, good.
Re: "Straight Outta Compton". Yeah, I always forget Dr. Dre did that. Probably because the media wants me to forget. I dunno why he gets a free pass. Him and John Lennon. John Lennon beat women, and confessed to it in interviews, and in a song.
At least Lennon felt bad about it, and thought he was going to Hell.
Dr. Dre and Chris Brown, not so much.
"Firefly" - That guy was definitely intimidating. I didn't know about some of the stuff Joss Whedon actually helped to write. I knew he helped with "Alien: Resurrection" and some of those horrible early "Roseanne" episodes, but "Speed"?!? Did he write Keanu's awful one-liners in that one?
NIN: I used to get a kick out of watching their Woodstock '94 show where they were all covered in mud and acting insane on stage. Reznor's productions and arrangements really do hold up on "The Downward Spiral" though, I thought "Pretty Hate Machine" (from 1989) sounded like a weird Depeche Mode-ish album (Reznor also appeared in a couple of films around this time.) and kinda dated but TDS really does kinda hold up.
"The Searchers" - Pretty key themes...considered one of the richest screenplays ever thematically. I should pickup the Criterion of "Stagecoach," that one was loaded LOADED with features.
Dr. Dre - Probably doesn't care about beating a woman's face in because he has $700 million. But that movie REALLY makes Ice Cube look like the Big Hero.
John Lennon - I had a chance to read the book written by Lennon's first wife, the one that he basically abandoned. I didn't read it though. Probably been a bit overshadowed by Patti Boyd's whole story of leaving George Harrison for Eric Clapton.
Caught "A Quiet Place," BTW. Well directed but very simplistic--basically an 80 minute version of the "War Of The Worlds" basement scene where they were trying to avoid that tentacle. Nice visuals and use of sound but you're kind of sitting there waiting for somebody to knock something over so that the monsters will show up for the inevitable jump scare. Not bad for what it is (and good that it's over with in 80 minutes.)
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