Movie Review > Salt

Salt: She's beautiful, there's a plot about Russian sleeper agents & complex action sequences. It's a  thriller. What more can anyone ask from this genre? I think it's a 'go-see' if you like this type of movie. Angelina Jolie carries the film, plays it to the hilt & is... well, sort of believable, as a REALLY tough CIA operative named Evelyn Salt. This is the 'pilot' film. Expect sequels; I'd bet money on it. Would 3.5 stars (of 5) be too much? Nah. I enjoyed it. It was fun. Here are a couple of other reviews. 

• NPR > Who Is 'Salt'? Tastily Enough, It's Angelina Jolie 
• NYT > Spies, Spider Venom & Sex Appeal
• The Stranger > Salt: More Like Womb Raider, Amirite?

Movie Review > Inception starring Leonardo De Caprio

"Inception" starring Leonardo DeCaprio directed by Christopher Nolan (Momento, Dark knight, Insomnia) is what I would call a REAL psychological thriller. Personal analysis helps.

Here we go.

Leonardo de Caprio -- the extractor -- specializes in subconscious security. He spies on, and tries to extract information from his target's psyche. To do it he has to get into the target's sub-conscious where ideas & truths run free. Our most natural experience with the sub-conscious is in dreams so De Caprio has a way to enter these dreams.

This movie naturally centers around a particularly difficult case. To succeed, the plan is two fold. 

First, the inception of an idea, i.e. planting/suggesting an idea to the target, since once implanted, there is no stopping it. Ideas and truths -- as well as fears & doubts -- roam freely in the sub-conscious; thus modern day psychoanalysis. The idea being that the inception of the idea will eventually lead to truth. 

But because of the complexity of this case, the other part of the plan involves, not one or two but three levels of dreams, i.e. the participants in the level one dream, are taken over by folks @ level 2, only to be supplanted by the folks at the 3rd level of the dream. This suggests the complexity of the target's defenses  protecting the truth. So you sit in a darkened movie theatre following Leonardo de Caprio (and others) pursue the idea implanted deep in the target's psyche.

The overall architect of this multi-tiered dream construct is non other than Ellen Page, the quirky star of current Microsoft commercials but most preciously starring in the wonderful "Juno".  I'm not sure why she was cast in this role except maybe it was her ability to provide a flat-line performance, i.e. objective, methodical, mathematical. 

Anyway, back to the plot.

The plot, i.e. the assignment, is to discover the final wishes of a dying tycoon: is he going to leave his company to his son or force him to strike out on his own? A pretty thin motive to be carrying such a heavy movie load but Mr. Nolan tries to bulk it up by having the dying tycoon's only competitor finance the whole caper for business reasons.

The trick here is to make sure that (1) there is enough time to complete the job & (2) that everyone is sufficiently asleep so they don't wake up & interrupt the flow of the various dreams which have to work in sync to succeed. 

Enter an East Asian character who has the right sleeping potion. He also has the music that, when played, awakens everyone from their drugged sleep. The sleep has to be deep enough to repel any doubts caused by outside influences (noise, light, etc.) because any of these would intrude on the dreams & create greater obstacles to retrieving the truth. These disturbed 'dreamscape' scenes are visually interesting.

Confused enough?

The last layer of this plot involves the investigator, himself, who is trying to 'return' home to his kids having left his wife behind in an earlier dreamscape where there was nothing but happy times. He is torn by the guilt of leaving her behind & returning to real life & the love of his kids. Each time any of these feelings enter his psyche, his wife appears & he has to interrupt his mission to deal with her.

At the end of this rather longish movie, everything is resolved. You might be a  little tired of thinking about what you just saw but you cannot deny that you were on a director's trip much as "Apolcalypse Now" was for Francis Ford Coppola. If you enjoy this sort of movie, you will probably enjoy this one, too. I did. 

Book Review > Hot Springs by Stephen Hunter

First Sergeant Earl Swagger returns from the war in Europe & the the Pacific, a certified hero, a tough guy; winner of the medal of honor bestoyed on him by President Harry S. Truman.

With his young wife newly pregnant & still living in a military Quonset hut & ready to work at the local mill until he can afford a house in Polk County AK, Earl is recruited to help organize a group of highly trained shooters (including Audy Murphy) by a newly elected & ambitious prosecuting attorney named Becker, the group to be led by an old time FBI agent and fast draw named D.A. Parker. Their aim:  to clean up Hot Springs.

The group, drawn from varied locations & walks of life, train in a secret location with pistols, rifles, automatic weapons, military tactics & discipline. Earl's sergeantry comes in handy here. Up at 5:00am, stripping down weapons, reassembling them in the dark, shooting, shooting & more shooting,  physical exercise, eating & sleeping repeated day after day until, finally they are ready for 'battle'.

Their nemesis: Owney Maddox, the godfather of Hot Springs who runs all the whorehouses, gambling casinos, numbers rackets & the like. All the local politicians are in his pocket as are the judges & police. His enforcers are an ornery clan of ruthless hillbillies. They rule the city unopposed until D.A. Parker, Earl Swagger & the team start taking Owney's underworld kingdom apart piece by piece in one surprise raid after another.

This causes great consternation, not only for Owney Maddox, but also for the godfather's in the New York mob who consider Hot Springs their personal playground, their safe haven, a place where everything is under control, where they can let their hair down, go to shows starring Mickey Rooney, Dina Shore & other stars of the time, to drink, gamble & cavort with whores without fear of being hassled by the cops. 

There are four or five detailed story lines in this book. One of them has Bugsy Seigel visiting Hot Springs with his girlfriend, Virgina Hill, on his way out west to build a casino in a place called Las Vegas, a state where gambling is legal & Meyer Lansky sees the potential of a great investment for mob monies. 

Other story lines involve Earl's wife, Earl's family background, racial integration, loyalty, betrayal and final restitution. 

The book has the richness of extreme detail that all Stephen Hunter books have, interwoven with bits of history, mixed with the brutality of the times. This book is definitely a page turner. My only problem is that I find the dialog in Mr. Hunter's books a bit stilted but after a while you just accept it as you are swept away by the story. 

Other books by & information about the author, Stephen Hunter

• Wikipedia
• Random House
• Unofficial Stephen Hunter website