Here’s a brief list of some of my favorite, um, stuff, from the year 2006. I know that critics like to make Ten Best lists, especially of movies. But I’m not sure there were ten really good movies this year, In any case, my favorite movies were not made as movies, and some were made quite a few years ago. Anyway, here goes.
My Favorite TV Show of: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
My Favorite TV Channel:
Turner Classic Movies. What an education I’m getting on this station. Where else can you see silent films by Carl Dreyer? They’re in the middle of a Gary Cooper film festival and a Stanley Donen retrospective. Ask Karen, I live on this station.
My Favorite Movies of 2006:
The best movie of 2006 was Firefly, a series made by Joss Whedon that was cancelled after a short run. Think John Ford in outer space. Brilliant, original, exciting, witty and utterly unforgettable.
Whedon went on to make Serenity, a sequel to Firefly, this feature film fills in a great deal from the series and is a great piece of movie magic. Think John Ford cross-pollinated with Akira Kurosawa.
Okay, these were made in 2005 not in 2006, but I’m afraid no one saw them. They are available on disc now, and look, they’re great, go out, and kick back and enjoy some old fashioned movie magic. G-d knows there’s not a lot of that anymore.
Samurai Rebellion, directed by the great Masaki Kobayashi. I’m shaking in my boots here. Finally, finally got a chance to see this classic 1967 samurai film. Actually, this is, as one astute Amazon viewer dubbed it “an anti-Samurai film.” The classic dramatic conflict plays out in stunning and savage geometric swordplay: where do your loyalties lie, to your master, or to your family? By the last frame, I was reduced to a puddle.
The Sword of Doom is described as “the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil.” This is another film from the sixties that I’ve been waiting and waiting to see. It was worth the wait. This movie might have the most amazing swordplay I have ever seen in a samurai film — and I’ve seen a lot of Japanese films.
Seven Men Fron Now Screenwriter Burt Kennedy wrote seven “B” westerns for director Budd Boetticher that are now recognized as classics. They all star Randolph Scott and they all pit a lone cowboy against a brutal landscape and a rather likable antagonist. This 1956 movie is a classic story of revenge, but like all the best westerns the emotions are complex and deeply compelling. This is the most satisfying of the Boetticher/Kennedy cycle.
My Favorite Books of 2006:
Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malay and Vietnam by John Nagl. This invaluable volume compares the British doctrine and practise in the Malayan Emergency from 1948-1960 to the American experience in Vietnam. That’s right. The Brits fought and defeated the Malayan Communists for 12 long years. They were patient, they adjusted, they won. The Americans in Vietnam, well, we were not patient, we did not adjust, we did not learn — we lost.
There are lessons on ever single page of this book on how we should conduct the war in Iraq, in fact in every counterinsurgency campaign. Every U.S. and Israeli officer I know is reading this book, learning it by heart. You should too.
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea by Jasper Becker. Over three million people have been starved to death by the North Korean regime. They have a gulag as large as Texas. President Clinton and Madelaine Albright’s policies of appeasement only encouraged and emboldened this most murderous of evil regimes. Now that Kim Jong Il has the bomb, well, there is little that can be done. This should be a lesson for those who are so sanguine about the Iranian nuclear threat, but I fear that appeasement is a default position for a large portion of our elite. Make no mistake about it, North Korea is the most murderous regime on the face of the earth. Horrifying reading, backed up by meticulous footnotes.
The Looming Tower: Al Queda and the Road to 9-11 by Lawrence Wright. See the CIA fight with the FBI. See beauracrats in vicious turf wars instead of battling Al Queda. See jihadists proclaim war on America — and America has not a clue. Every American must read this book if he/she cares about the survival of western civilization.
Would you like to know how New York City works? Curious about the history of every manhole cover in every borough? Well, this is the book for you. The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Asher.
I read two novels that just knocked me out this year, both by young women.
Oh boy, can she spin a sentence, I told myself, as I dug into Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. I figured she’d have problems resolving her ending, I can sense when a story teller is losing control of the material, but this is a wonderful novel and though the ending and resolution doesn’t quite work, well, that’s why we in Hollywood reshoot 99% of the endings of our movies. Endings are hard. Resolutions are even more difficult.
Brookland. This is a very different novel than “Calamity Physics.” Slow, stately, a period piece. Emily Barton is not writing her first novel. It makes a difference. She’s got some experience under her belt. I savored every detail of life in Brookland, Brooklyn, before there was bridge to Manhattan. Lovely and touching. Highly recommended.
Best Semiautomatic Pistol of 2006:
It’s light, never jams, shoots consistently tight groups at fifteen yards. Great gun.
Click
for the Best Book Cover of 2006.
Best Graphic Novels:
Brownsville by Neil Kleid and Jake Allen
Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
22 Comments
Fern:
I’ve generally found that it’s too easy to make a Worst List, especially when it comes to movies. It’s also a great way to make enemies in my business. But my readers are free to chime in with… whatever.
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If you feel the need to make a “2006′s Worst” list, then I nominate The Good Sheppard. I saw it last night and spent most of the movie trying to come up with creative ways to gouge my eyes out.
I’ve had Brookland sitting in my bookcase for a while, I guess I should dust it off and check it out…
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Sorry, I thought that qualification was referring to the movies that followed.
Anyway, everyone knows that the best movie of 2006 was Nacho Libre.
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PsychoT:
I also pointed that they were not made in 2006.
“Okay, these were not made in 2006 but I’m afraid no one saw them. They are available on disc now, and look, they’re great, go out, and kick back and enjoy some old fashioned movie magic. G-d knows there’s not a lot of that anymore.”
And yes, I agree, the homicide bombings in BSG and the,um, speechifying to justify were deeply disturbing.
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Jake:
I heard it was a good film.
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Much as I love both Firefly and Serenity (I own not one but two copies of both–one for me and one for my daughter at Stern), I am compelled to point out that it was the best film of 2005, not 2006.
And I also own all the BSG DVDs, though I was very upset with the Iraqiness of the season opener.
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I just saw an extraordinary film last night that should make a lot of “best” lists. “Children of Men” was a remarkable piece of work. I have no idea what the background is of the novelist and the screenwriters for this film, but one of them has to be an independent political thinker or maybe even a conservative. In an age where all we hear about is population control, this film comes to remind us that children still bring out the best in most of us, and without them there is no hope for humanity, not only on the obvious biological level, but in every other way as well.
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i have no self-control. at the end of each disk i always say i need to watch the next episode. but once the next disk is in, i watch the whole thing. and then i say i need to see the next episode . . .
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Yael:
“Medium” is a good show, but not really outstanding. But you know, this is extremely personal. I know people who absolutely swear by “Medium.” And notice I don’t list “Lost” either. That show drives me nuts. There are more people on that island than on Manhattan.
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Ari:
You don’t have to watch 24 over one weekend, you can do it over a few eeeks. It’s fun that way. Drag out the suspense, y’know?
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Kishke:
Great minds, etc.
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Great choices!
Loved Firefly – though couldn’t stand the relationship between the doctor and the mechanic. 24 – great – though it gets tense without a tidy resolution. MEDIUM didn’t make the cut?
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i got into 24 last year. i watched the reruns of season 1 and loved it. i’m glad they killed the mom. i only wished they would have killed the daughter as well (she’s annoying). then i ordered season 2 and watched the entire season over one saturday night and sunday afternoon. it was also great overall, but in the second half of the the second season it felt like things were getting a bit repeptitive. i would like to see more, but i don’t have an entire weekend to spare to watch an entire season again.
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Hey, I really liked Firefly and Serenity too. A fun show.
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Alcibiades:
I like Battlestar Galactica too. I get all the discs from the academy. Good show, though it does lack wit and humor–which is what elevates Joss Whedon’s work to another, um, universe.
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Wow, that’s great that you like Firefly and Serenity so much, Robert.
I’m a huge Joss Whedon/Tim Minear fan, myself. Tim Minear is coming out with a new series this spring – Drive. We’ll see how soon they cancel that one.
If you like Sci-fi, now that it’s moving to Sunday nights, you might try Battlestar Galactica. I think it’s currently the best show on tv. It has a whole interesting mystical side to it as well.
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I’ll let him calm down before I tell the stories of the local news anchormen and women I’ve worked with over the years who often misread news copy and referred to the “22 MINIMETER handguns” and stuff like that.
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Jake, I know there are people who can respond with LOL to your clever rejoinders, but Robert is laughing so hard he can’t even type. You see he is rolling on the floor laughing out loud. ROTFLOL. I guess you’ll have to make another trip to the gun store.
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Oh, and I remember when Ted Turner bought the rights to all those classic movies. There was a big hue and cry that he would try to colorize them all or use the negatives to floss his teath. I don’t know if it was his plan all along or if someone got to him, but instead he gave us Turner Classic Movies and there is not one movie buff who does not absolutely love that station.
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“Best Semiautomatic Pistol of 2006:
Glock Model 23″
Oh great, now you tell me. So now what do I do with this whole case of Glock Model 22′s I bought?
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Denise:
Yes, Nathan Fillion (sp?) does do a modern version of John Wayne.
I should have mentioned that “Serenity” was made on a very low budget. Thanks so much. Look, I’ve learned that it does not matter how high the budget is when it comes to the quality of a film. Talent will almost always find a way to shine through. Most movie budgets are wasted. On TV it’s a whole different matter. Writers run TV shows and they, are usually not promiscuous with budgets.
I don’t just enjoy these two works, I love and admire them.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
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You are one of the only people besides our eldest son and myself who realizes how truly good “Firefly” and “Serenity” were. (Not counting the multitudes of “Firefly” fans of course.) They both were modern incarnations of the John Wayne, John Ford films of the 40′s and 50′s. The kind of western I grew up on and enjoyed. Did you know that relatively speaking they were not made on megablockbuster budgets? like i.e. cutting corners in their magic-making? I guess it’s validating to hear that a professional screenwriter enjoys them. Good shabbos to you and Karen.
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