Is this a serious discussion of raising the debt ceiling or the opportunity for a failing president to gain control of center stage in a desperate attempt to assert his authority and relevance before the 2012 election?
Obama seems to be playing the role of Marshal Will Kane (Will relates to the character of the Marshal) straight from the movie High Noon, arguably one of the best films ever made. Filmed in 1952, at the height of Senator McCarthy’s claims of Communist agents and influence within the federal government and the entertainment industry, (claims that were largely proven to be correct by the Verona Cables and declassification of KGB files) it is a movie that emphasizes the ideals of the strength of the individual in standing up to evil.
It is ironic that Obama, the hero of the Progressive Socialist movement in the US, has seemingly cast himself as a prototype Marshal Kane, played by Gary Cooper. Marshal Kane is the epitome of how the American male likes to imagine himself, the self-assured cowboy hero facing incarnate evil. He is also the fantasy image of American women who dream wistfully of the mythical cowboy hero. Many American facets of personality were portrayed in the movie and Obama is manipulating these traits to his advantage in a real life interpretation of High Noon. Foremost is the allegorical image of a hero, who is abandoned by those he has served and loved.
In the screenplay, a killer is arriving on the train at noon, a man that Marshal Kane arrested and sent to prison, where he was to be hanged, but he’s has been set free. He has three henchmen waiting to help him and he is determined to exact revenge on Marshal Kane. The film is staged in real time and the time is recorded on the town clock featured in the movie; in other words the film begins a little after ten o’clock and continues on in real or actual time toward High Noon.
We have the default and the possibility of financial collapse arriving in a short period of time. The henchmen are represented by the Republicans, who wait in anticipation of the train bringing chaos and the demise of Obama. Marshal Obama is pleading for help, but everyone is turning their back on him and he is struggling to persevere to save the dusty little town known as America.
The screenplay written by Carl Foreman, was based loosely on “The Tin Star” a Collier’s magazine article from 1947, by John Cunningham. Foreman is thought to have based the screenplay on his personal struggles with the McCarthy investigation, based on associations with the Communist Party. Thus we have the image of a man who is turned on by friends and associates as he struggles against evil. Foreman was blacklisted and left for London, soon after writing the script.
Amy, played by Grace Kelly, is Will Kane’s virginal bride, (they marry in the opening minutes) she is half the age of Marshal Kane and is a Quaker and a pacifist. She begs her husband to flee the inevitable bloody confrontation, as do his friends; they in effect are asking him to take the coward’s path, the path they have chosen, but Marshal Kane must be true to his ideals and show courage, even if everyone else is a sniveling coward.
The movie has also been thought to be an allegory to the US role in the Cold War and the Korean War. The hero/Marshal Kane is already retired and tired(Cooper is actually suffering from ulcers, his pain is thought to help add to the realism), but he feels honor bound to stand against evil forces.
Marshal Kane admits he has fear, a hero without fear and uncertainty doesn’t build empathy among the audience.
Marshal Kane’s former Mexican mistress, a woman of dubious virtue, is also portrayed in the film; thus adding to the conflict of good and evil.
High Noon has all the elements of the traditional western: bad guys, beautiful heroine, handsome hero, and a dusty little western town, but it didn’t involve periodic action and horse opera. The action was all in the final ten minutes; otherwise, the script built the tension around the human emotions involved: fear, love, betrayal, vengeance, heroism, and loyalty.
Obama is calling on these same emotions by creating the same tension derived from the clock ticking toward High Noon and the real action will be within the last few minutes. Will Obama defeat the evil Republicans? The climax is only temporary, the story will be unfolding until November 6, 2012. Yet a little drama can be used to catch the public’s attention in the mean time.
Unfortunately, High Noon wasn’t well received by the American public; but fifty years later, the cinematic accomplishments of the film are still being appreciated.
Will Obama benefit from playing the script to an allegorical High Noon. Americans favor the typical western with lots of action; they don’t appreciate being portrayed as base stupid and cowards in a grim serious screenplay. It’s a big gamble being played by Obama; except this time we are all involved in the script.
Let the games continue, I am enjoying the Obama Drama.
Epilogue: John Wayne hated the movie and called it unAmerican because of the cowardice of the townspeople. It is accepted that it was the reason he made the movie Rio Bravo.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
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Nope, what he’s playing is the sheriff from “Blazing Saddles”, it’s all about him, it’s all about race, and he’ll self destruct (taking as many with him as he can) before he gives up.
Al, that’s a good analogy, I had forgotten all about “BS”. Unfortunately, we aren’y getting many laughs with the Obama version. It’s obviously about him and he will bankrupt the country to blame the Republicans. We must remember, I said he seems to be playing the role of Marshal Kane. That is the purpose of Obama Drama; in reality, his fumbling and dithering sets him up more for a “BS” character.
We who view it as a drama or a comedy are the lucky ones; Liberals who actually take him seriously are becoming disillusioned with the Obama Drama and their plans for a Utopia are crumbling around them as the White House crew seem to be more qualified for a sport like Rollerball than guiding our troubled economy.
Love the story Skook, I have somewhat different take on which players in our looming debt crisis relate to which characters in the movie. Let me throw this at you.
Coopers character the tired and retiring sheriff is played by Ron Paul the tired and retiring congressman, a man who has done his best to secure the prosperity and liberty of those who appointed him to public office.
The role of Frank Miller, the sinister and nefarious leader of the Miller gang is portrayed by our National debt (a killer if there ever was one!) the rest of the Miller Gang is composed of our President and those in Congress of the leftist persuasion , they will attempt to bully and intimidate anyone who dares to question or threaten the status quo.
Grace Kelley’s character Ann, the peace loving Quaker, is represented by the milquetoast and more liberal side of the electorate. Those who would turn a blind eye and capitulate rather than confront evil where it exists. Their position was well stated by Ann in the movie “I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. There’s got to be some better way for people to live.”
The part of Helen Ramirez the business woman and former concubine of Will who refuses to help because there is nothing in it for her is played by big business interests. There is much they could do to avert the looming crisis but if they can’t own the man they have no interest in saving him. As Helen said “Kane will be a dead man in half an hour and nobody’s gonna do anything about it. And when he dies, this town dies too. I can feel it. I am all alone in the world. I have to make a living. So I’m going someplace else. That’s all.”
Lloyd Bridges role as Chief Deputy Harvey Pell is assumed by those so called Republicans in Congress who KNOW what the right thing to do is……but refuse to do it because they didn’t get what they want.
And of course we, all of us out here in flyover country the Christian Conservatives, the Reagan Democrats, Independents, Constitutionalists, Libertarians, are the townspeople. We could put a stop to all this nonsense if we would but band together behind the Marshall and support his defense of the rule of law. But most of us would rather let someone else do the heavy lifting while we reap the benefits an ordered society brings.
On the bright side as I’m sure you know it was Ann who killed Frank Miller at the end. It was she ,the peace lover, who finally decided to stand up and aid her man. Can it happen again?
How’s that?
Poppa, I think you are a frustrated screenwriter. The Will Kane character should stay open to allow the reader to insert their own hero.
I actually considered using inanimate antagonists like the debt ceiling, but thought I might lose people to confusion. You made it work. It was well executed, well executed indeed.
I hope we will be seeing an analogy to one of the film classics from you in the near future.
Skook,
Minor correction that you would want to hear – it’s ‘Venona’ cables, not ‘Verona’ cables. And they were actually government investigation files, not cables.
I highly recommend the Book ‘The Venona Secrets’ by Romerstein and Breindel… perfect for insomniacs.
Yer welcome.
Thanks Pete, that was one of my early spots on proofreading; yet, I neglected to correct it.
Actually, I read “Body of Secrets” (story of the NSA) and was blown away by the amount of declassified material that runs counter to general publicly held assumptions of recent history; particularly, those being taught as facts in our Progressive Public Education System. This is another excellent book for insomniacs; but be careful, you will be reading and the sunrise will warn you just how long you have been reading. A book of many pages, it is hard to put down.
I will need to check out “The Venona Cables,” thank you, for the tip.
Pete, I always assumed the Cables weren’t really the physical metal cables, but was a more archaic use of the word, referring to messages sent by wire and later by radio. People often referred to receiving a cable over the telegraph wires.
Skook –
Thanks for the book tip and for clarifying ‘cables’. It’s an anachronism that some of the younger set might not have understood. And while I’m at it, thanks for contributing in your sage manner. Western sage, that is.
Random tangent – Interesting that Tweeting and SMS texting are similar to the old telegram. Except back then you paid by the character and thus kept it short – nowadays you keep it short so the character you are sending it to will bother to read it.
Electronic media: ever increasing volumes of information that is all breadth and no depth.
I have read that the “cowardly townspeople quailing before a criminal gang” theme in many Westerns is at odds with reality. Many of the men in such post-Civil-War towns would have had combat experience and would have no problem with offering armed organized force in the face of gunfire. Case in point: The experience of the James/Younger gang in their 1876 raid on banks in Northfield Minnesota. Weapons were immediately distributed from hardware stores and the gang was shot to pieces. I believe the Dalton gang had a similar experience in Coffeyville Kansas (1892) – they were destroyed.
I believe that the cowardice theme is used when the old frontier town is meant as a stand-in for modern society. The use of Western towns for such allegories necessarily means distorting history. I think people who feel little affinity for American history (i.e. leftists) are more likely to use this theme than people who do have some interest and affection for our past.
Wm. T, this was the Duke’s idea of a western:
I agree with you. The Progressive Socialist Ideology seeks to belittle the idea of the individual and his ability to confront a crisis alone. We are much better off to depend on the state for all our needs, according to Obama; yet in the final analysis he becomes the state. In effect, a benevolent dictator, at least until you contradict him.
O’BoingBoing is not the sheriff, his character is the governor played by Mel Brooks giving the toy paddles to all his cronies along with Harvey Corman as Axelrod and Slim Pickens as Janet Napalatanio feeling up the rubber ducky. Lily VonStupe is the ballarino Mayor of Chicago.
Ah Sooth, I was waiting for your dramatic expertise; you didn’t disappoint.
I talked to guys who knew Slim, they said he never had to spend time getting into character; it was a full time job, just being Slim Pickens. He was known as a great fun guy, the same one you saw on the screen.
It’s been a fun day with our own drama guys.
SKOOKUM, HI, YES VERY INTERESTING, AND FROM ALL THE POSTERS TOO
YOU KNOW, I was expecting that DONALD BLY WOULD SHOW UP HERE ANY MINUTE,
HEY DONALD GET YOURSELF HERE WITH THE DINGOS, AND THE BOOMERANG,
BYE
Well my memory is going but if I remember correctly there was a report by I believe “Mark Twain.”
He was traveling across country when the group he was with had to stop because of a report of hostile Indian activity ahead. He commented about how about how all the males in the party just “naturally shook themselves out into a skirmish line and advanced toward the top of a ridge to see what was going on ahead.” To him there attitudes and actions bespoke the been there and done that of Civil War military veterans. All in all from my reading, the West was wild and dangerous just as much for the bad guys as it was anyone else. Thieves got shot and hanged. Posses formed to chase down robbers and fend off “Hostiles”.
Obama and his gang of bandits have been stealing money. I think the posse is forming up.
toadold.
yes the bandit stole money, but we cannot find the sherif anywhere.
bye
Well written as usual, Skook. You give us plenty of food for thought with a new take on an old problem, that of creeping socialism.
It took us nearly 100 years to get here and it will take us nearly that much to get us back to a real, constitutional America.
Actually, it was Howard W. Hawks, the director of Rio Bravo, who stated that High Noon was the worst Western ever made and cast John Wayne to be the sheriff in Rio Bravo. I, along with my America Culture students in China, went through these two movies carefully comparing and contrasting the culture being depicted. If one does that, one will see why a conservative like Hawkes and Wayne would do a rebuttal for High Noon.
I remember one scene that pretty much says its all. John Wayne as Sheriff Chance is in the bar discussing the problems he faced from the Burdette family and gunmen by having one of them in his jail. The wagon master played by Ward Bond volunteers his services and other town folks to help the sheriff. Sheriff Chance makes it clear that this was his duty and job and none professionals would just get themselves killed. Now contrast that with Sheriff Kane running around his town begging for the town folks to help him. Kind of says it all about progressives versus conservatives, doesn’t it?
Shared sacrifice versus personal responsibility. In this instance, I think you nailed it perfectly comparing it to the Obama farce of a movie.
BTW, I thought Rio Bravo really proved that Dean Martin was an excellent actor and was never really allowed to blossom as an actor.
Interesting post Chill, I’d like to have listened to the Chinese students explain the differances between the two films.
Yes my point was that Obama is fine tuning a performance to seem like Will Kane, capturing the essence of the role will be difficult with the skepticism the public has developed toward Obama.
@Skookum 2:
Yeh, I used to think that High Noon was at the top of the Western list as well, but changed my mind after comparing Rio Bravo with it. High Noon goes against everything that is represented by the American West. Cowards running away from possible problems (so very American), marshal’s begging everyone and anyone to help him solve the problems (no call of duty here), the justice system taking a leave of absence out of fear (banana republic justices usually can be bought). Pretty dismal picture of the American West and American traits, wouldn’t you agree? No wonder Hawks thought the whole thing stunk and did a rebuttal of it with John Wayne.
But wait . . . cowards running away from possible problems? Haven’t we had nothing but cowards running our political system for years? A marshal begging everyone and anyone to help him solve the problem instead of stepping up to the plate no matter what it cost him. Sound familiar? A justice system taking a leave of absence. Wow, maybe you are on to something afterall, Skookum!!!!!!!
As to the book Body of Secrets and its predecessor The Puzzle Palace about No Such Agency, well . . . take what you learned from them with a pretty big grain of salt. I found lots of places in The Puzzle Palace that Bamford was clueless, yet he wrote as if the events or situations he mentioned were factual. The two books come from unclassified documentation he got through various sources. Unclassified means just that as you well know. The really interesting and exciting stuff remains locked away from public view for good reasons. That is the nature of the beast.
If I heard you (without you knowing it) tell someone that you thought I was a really great poet, pretty sure that is how you really feel. If I heard you (and you know I am listening) tell that person that I was a really great poet, are you lying and just saying it for me to hear? This concept is why the methods and sources information hold the highest classification in the intelligence community’s classification system. They will never be released for us to look over. Bamford had no access to these files and thus filled the holes with suppositions and guesses. Most of the time he guessed wrong or kind of wrong.
How do I know? Do a google on USAFSS and USAF ESC and see what you come up with. Welcome to my world!
Anne Arundel County in Maryland is the home of Ft. Meade and NSA. Most of the people who live there work at one of these two government and military facilities. No one knows who works where because no one asks and no one tells. Bamford claims to have done interviews. OK, but I bet the information he got was super dated and carefully conducted by the people he talked to. No Such Agency personnel are some of the best people I have ever met, placing the task at hand above their personal beliefs, politics and lives. They are also the best cryptologists and computer specialist in the business. Oh, the stories I could tell about just the personalities I have met and worked with!!!!!!!!!
Chill, now my naivete is revealing me to be a fool. I thought Bamford was a genius. My father was a gunnery officer in the WWII Navy and he recommended the book to me as gospel. I had a great deal of respect for my father and with all the documentation within the book, I thought it was the real deal. Still I wondered why the book was not creating bonfires in the minds of literate patriots.
You have caused me to open a new chapter in what I had considered an orderly group of files within the mind. Oh my, I need to spend some time thinking this one over.
Thanks for the insight.
@Skookum:
Hold on a bit, Skookum. I may have been too hard on Bamford. I enjoyed reading The Puzzle Palace and thought it to be very readable. He did a great job putting a lot of material together and did get a lot of documentation released from NSA that made the book very well written. None of it, however, was classified. He would not have been allowed to legally publish the book if it had contained information that would have hurt the NSA charter. No classified information. That is important to understand. Does not mean that he wrote junk. Only people involved in some of the events would even question what he wrote.
There have been books published that contained classified information but they were done overseas by usually rogue and anti-American publishers. Bamford is writing for the mass audience and thus had to have an established publisher do the book. I have yet to fully read Body of Secrets but have read snippets and reviews of it. It sounds like he did a great job telling the NSA history. NSA does not eavesdrop on American citizens talking to each other. It is not done unless they go through the proper channels and that is not easy (FICA). Their charter is foreign intelligence only. Talk about a paranoid organization concerning the “big brother” concept, NSA is big time. They have regulations in place to protect freedom of the American citizen. Basically, anything you read that says otherwise is a lie. Been there, done that often. You want to lose your job and spend time at Leavenworth, try to play big brother at NSA. It is not done without a huge amount of oversight. Been a while since I was involved but I doubt if this has changed as these were some really harsh regulations with a ton of oversight.
Bamford does a good job in The Puzzle Palace and one comes away with a feeling of what it is like. I did not realize that USAFSS only took the top 1/2 of the top 1 percent of recruits (found this at Wilkipedia site). I often wondered why I constantly had a headache when talking to my colleagues. I snuck in the backdoor into an arena where the atmosphere was extremely lacking in oxygen because there was such a high level of intelligence (this is a joke, of course). The guys I worked with I loved and respected more than any other time in my life. I still belong to a few groups made up of these supermen. Oh, the stories, the stories!!!!!!
I remember reading of the start of the NSA in a vault with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, if the story was real. Body of Secrets was well written and held the reader’s interest, that’s for sure.
I hope you stick around, we need someone to bounce ideas against. I realize your restrictions, but there is a methodology to your thought processes, for instance, “Trust but Verify.” I will never forget that one.
Thanks for the compliment. Your “vault with a single light bulb” reminded me of one of my favorite movies – Midway. Charlton Heston continually is going down into a bunker area to see Hal Holbrook, the crypto guy, and asking him for intel on the Japanese fleet. Holbrook starts telling him about FA (I think it was FA) and how they think this is referencing the next big operation for the Japanese fleet and he thinks it will be Midway. He then had the com people on Midway send out a low level coded report about the water filtration system on Midway. Within a day this is reported in the Japanese coms as referring to FA. These, BTW, were intercepts which we were breaking with Magic, the code name for the decoding device. Great stuff!
If the truth be told, comint (communications intelligence) pretty much won the war in the Pacific with our ability to intercept and read the Japanese messages before their intended receivers. Many liberals believe that the US used the atomic bomb on Japan needlessly as the Japanese were already prepared to surrender. Magic intercepts say differently and it was from these messages that the decision to proceed with the bombing continued. We knew what the position of the military commanders were and they had decided to fight to the bitter end.
Interesting and exciting stuff, at least for me. BTW, Enemy Of The State with Will Smith is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. They did not even get a single thing correct – completely silly in all respects. Too much knowledge makes it difficult to watch a lot of movies as entertainment.
My career started in 1971 and went until 1994 when I retired. The mission of NSA was declassified in 1997 as I recall. During this time, we went from analog to full digital and I have used some of the most sophisticated electronics on the planet.
For example, in the early seventies we were using five-level tape for translation and zipping it back home via satellite. My brother, trying to be the liberal snob that he is, asked me if I was using cards to input the data (hey, he knew about computers!). He did not even know enough to understand what five-level tape was and . . . needless to say, he never asked what I did again.
As to the Trust But Verify, Bamford got it wrong about the USS Liberty. Atrocities were being committed by Israeli troops in the Sinai but we simply did not care. Even if made public it would not have changed anything because Egypt was a proxy of the Soviet Union, our big enemy at the time. Nope, the cover up was done for some other reason, a much more cynical reason IMHO.
I have been here since 2005 or so, if my memory serves me well. Think Mataharley can say for sure when I first joined. I’m not going anywhere.
Interesting that I could access this website even in China!
Midway was a great movie, I find it all so interesting because of all the relatives that were there and the immense challenges they faced.
Was the victory at Midway a result of Intel or a bit of luck? I am referring to the loss of the Japanese carriers.
Chill, you mentioned your large screen monitor, does that mean you can no longer read books or do you use the serene for electronic books?
I am getting ready to drive home from work, so I will be off the air for a couple of hours.
@Skookum: Re: Midway, I believe that Japan’s choice of what bombs they put under their planes played a huge role in our win as well.
The victory was a combination of team America working together with close coordination and sharing of information. The Japanese did not know where the American carriers were nor did they know how many planes were available for the Americans. They made mistakes in arming and rearming and deployment because of this lack of intel. Luck certainly had part of it but only around the edges.
To answer your question about luck versus intel, I found this interesting quote from a Naval History site:
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq81-3.htm
The Battle of Midway has become a classic example of the successful operation of the communications intelligence process. From interception through processing and analysis, through translation to timely reporting, the entire process worked the way it was designed to work. The United States Naval victory in the Battle of Midway was a direct reflection of a truly incredible performance of the entire Naval Comint organization. As Admiral Nimitz said after the battle, “had we lacked early information of the Japanese movement, and had we been caught with Carrier Task Forces dispersed, possibly as far away as the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway would have ended far differently.”
This does not take away from the brave souls who attacked the Japanese carriers continuously knowing full well they were going to die. I think the point is that it all started with the Coral Sea and the success we had using comint. The admirals realized the importance of the intel as it related to what happened during the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Japanese did not lose but they did not win that battle thanks to the valuable comint provided by the intel guys. This was then perceived as valuable and used whole heartedly at Midway without trying to second guess what it was providing to Nimitz and the other admirals.
Although comint had been around for quite some time, the Battle of Midway raised it to a level above and beyond all the other intel resources. The NSA’s budget for SIGINT and personnel is probably more than the combined amount of the three other ints (image intel, human intel, and measurement and signature intel) and for good reason. The ideal intel is one that comes from one of the intels and is validated by another (preferably two other distinct sources).
Midway! I think I will just watch it again tonight.