WORLD TOUR Day 59 - Nicaragua
BEFORE: I made it in to work yesterday, for the first time in a week. A surprise vacation was fine, but I was going a bit stir crazy in the house. It took me two hours and three modes of transportation (walking, subway, shuttle bus) to get into Manhattan. I had to walk across Chelsea, part of which is still without power. You think of Manhattan and you think of privilege, convenience, all the comforts of modern living. But without electricity, you realize just how close we all are to our pre-technology ancestors - perhaps the folks of the 1800's got it right, using coal and whale oil as fuel, because there was little chance of a whole city lacking power at the same time.
Without traffic lights and "Don't Walk" signs, what exists over a large portion of the Big Apple is chaos. Anarchy. Although it's short of being an actual war zone, a similar vibe exists, with the National Guard on hand. And while I didn't see any roving bands of marauders, I was there during the late morning and had no desire to hang around after dark. On its best day, with everything working, New York City is a powderkeg. It just takes one little push to take it over the edge. Sure, people band together after a natural disaster, but what I saw was a lot of pushing and shoving, and walking for blocks to get coffee. Maybe people were coming together as a community somewhere else, but all I witnessed was "Every man for himself."
Linking from "Cocktail", Tom Cruise was also in "The Firm" with Gene Hackman (last seen in "The Quick and the Dead"). No reason to get crazy with this now.
THE PLOT: Three journalists in a romantic triangle are involved in political intrigue during the last days of the corrupt regime in Nicaragua before it falls to a popular revolution in 1979.
AFTER: I admit I found this one a little confusing, since I couldn't tell the Sandanistas from, umm, the other guys. And some characters were definitely playing off both sides, which didn't help. Hey, I have trouble following politics in my own country, let alone a Latin American regime.
That said, there were a few things in the film that I haven't seen in other war-related films, and now I can say that I've seen quite a few. There's good stuff here about the role of journalists during a war, meatier stuff than what was seen in "The Killing Fields", which seemed to focus on saving just one guy. I mean, I'm sure he's a nice guy, he's your friend and all, but can we look at the big picture here? What can a journalist do to change the course of a war? What SHOULD a journalist do to change the course of a war?
Report the facts, sure. But how do you get another country, such as the U.S., to care about your war? Take the perfect photo? Make stuff up? Expose the truth behind the facts? Yes, and more, but I don't want to give it away. But the right (or wrong) moves by a journalist can sway the court of public opinion, and I don't think I've seen that expressed so well in a film before. Usually there's just footage of a reporter hammering away on a typewriter, or staring out the window while searching for the perfect words. Lame. This film has the real nitty gritty.
Whatever happens in the next few days with the U.S. Presidential election, and however you feel about the saturation of political ads, or negative campaigning, or misstating facts during a debate, at least we don't live in a country where military juntas are in charge - and so far we've made it 236 years without a coup. (Oh, wait, the Civil War. Does that count?) Anyway, I'm thankful that the transfer of power (or not) will be relatively bloodless. Except maybe in Ohio or Florida.
Also starring Nick Nolte (last seen in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills"), Joanna Cassidy (last seen in "The Fourth Protocol"), Ed Harris (last seen in "Nixon"), Richard Masur (last seen in "Semi-Tough"), Hamilton Camp, Rene Enriquez.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 748 miles / 1,205 km (Ocho Rios, Jamaica to Managua, Nicaragua)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 44,474 miles / 71,574 km (kms again adjusted for rounding errors)
RATING: 4 out of 10 white flags
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