So here for your consideration are my celluloid selections and their real-life counterparts.
'Norma Rae' goes
to Wisconsin
As I watched perky Sally Field hop up on that table and flash her well-toned biceps along with that "Union" sign, I was reminded of those valiant public workers in Madison, marching for the right to screw up some kids' educations. (Not, of course, that this mattered to said kids, who were perfectly happy to hang out at the mall while their elders acted like spoiled brats.)
In a union town like Philadelphia, this "The people, united, will never be defeated" nonsense evokes sympathy. But for a lot of Americans who don't get Cadillac benefits and believe in the right to work, it just looks like blackmail. Frankly, if we were to remake "Norma Rae" today, Gov. Walker and his fiscal pragmatism cuts a more heroic figure than Gidget.
'The Cider House Rules' in West Philly
Michael Caine deserved that Oscar he won.
Caine swayed academy voters by showing that a man who aborts the babies of poor, unwed mothers is a philanthropist, not a criminal. Unfortunately, Kermit Gosnell was more Sweeney Todd than Albert Schweitzer and showed that in real (as opposed to reel) life, killing babies is not the prescription for a happy ending.
Moscow and the Mideast,
perfect together
"Dr. Zhivago" is, quite simply, the most exquisite movie ever filmed, with its Snow Queen landscapes and music-box soundtrack.
But it is also a horror film, showing just how dangerous ideals can be in the hands of true believers. The Bolsheviks started out as intelligent young reformers who seized their country from a tyrant. But before you could say "Trotsky," they became the evil they beheld, while naive liberals in the West cheered them on.
It's important to remember that not every "People's Revolution" ends with a few minutes of tidy Hollywood credits. Some end in bloodshed.
When priests were
