captain_astronaut

Paul mentions that he read an essay by Walter Mosley concerning Hogan's Heroes. Mosley says there was one black character on the show who never spoke, but the fact that he was there was important to him. I haven't read the essay, so I don't know if Paul's memory is accurate, but "Kinch" Kinchloe (as played by Ivan Dixon) had as many lines as the other secondary characters. He was in charge of communications. An interesting bit of history is that Ivan Dixon went on to a long career as one of the first and few African-American television directors in Hollywood. He also directed a couple classic Blaxploitation movies, Trouble Man, and The Spook Who Sat by the Door.

Paul and Amy were upset that the sword guy practiced that scene for months, before they decided to just shoot him because of Harrison's illness. But they shouldn't feel bad. That was actor/stuntman Pat Roach, who also played the big bald nazi that Indy fights at the plane. He was also the chief guard in Temple of Doom, and was General Kael in Willow. So I think he came out pretty well.

I think Amy Nicholson needs to turn in her critic's credentials after this. Titanic is a cliche riddled, 1 dimensional archetype heavy, bucket of treacle. Cameron is a great technician, but his writing comes straight out of Syd Field (not a compliment). He has written some of the worst lines in cinema history; Abyss: "You have to see with better eyes than that." Titanic: "You see people, Jack." "I see YOU, Rose." Avatar: "Killed for the paper in his wallet." Nicholson can be forgiven for loving the movie at the time when she was so much younger, but to still tout it as amazing, and believe Cameron is our best director, boggles the mind (Spielberg is far from our best director, but that's another rant). Titanic is a 200 million dollar Tommy Wisseau movie.

I saw this about a billion times on HBO in the early 80's. This and Wolfen introduced me to Albert Finney.