The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

Director: Gus Van Sant Writer: Dustin Lance Black Stars: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O'Hare, Joseph Cross, Stephen Spinella This magnificent film follows the public career and private life of Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay elected official, from his decision to change his life at the age of 40 through his rise to national prominence until his assassination less than ten years later.  Through all of this, Gus Van Sant's film remains warm and intimate so that we never lose sight that at the heart of this movement were real, feeling, fallible, uncertain, often frightened human beings who rose to the challenge of insisting on their humanity in the face of overwhelming condemnation and persecution.  Much of the credit for this successful presentation goes to Sean Penn and the rest of the wonderful cast, notably including James Franco and Emile Hirch.  Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black also deserves...

Director: Clint Eastwood Writers: Iris Yamashita, story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis, from the book "Picture Letters from Commander in Chief" by Tadamichi Kuribayashi and edited by Tsuyoko Yoshido Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Yuki Matsuzaki This American film presents the battle for Iwo Jima from the perspective of the outnumbered Japanese soldiers who were stationed there.  Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker with a wife and a daughter he has never met, is not seduced by the nationalistic fervor that prefers death to defeat.  He wants to go home to his family.  The new commander on the island, Gen. Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), who has lived in the United States and cherishes a pistol that was a going-away gift from his American friends, is resolved to fight for his homeland.  Watanabe projects the weary determination of a man fated to play his part in a conflict that he persona...

by J.R.R. Tolkien Sauron’s armies close in on Gondor and its allies, while Frodo and Sam struggle toward Mount Doom to destroy the Ring.  The war is fought on two fronts at once: open battle for the world, and a private test of endurance and judgment.  The long denouement after the Ring is cast into Mount Doom depicts change, loss, and what it means to deal with the trauma of war both for the participants and the homes to which they return.  Middle-Earth with its meticulously crafted history and language is unsurpassed as an example of world building.  JRR Tolkien denied that he wrote a commentary on his wartime era, yet it is hard not to notice political and social allegories, such as a satire of socialism, echoes of Nazism, allusions to postwar shortages in Britain, and an environmental strain that explores what gets consumed, stripped, and ruined when power expands.  JRR Tolkien Tolkien’s treatment of Denethor’s decline is a clear example of the book's richne...