Bullitt (1968)

In Chicago, Johnny Ross flees town before mobster hitmen can kill him.  He has embezzled two million dollars and now has a price on his head.  The next day, he's in San Francisco and calls Senator Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to arrange for police protection.  He'll be an informant in exchange.  Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) of the SFPD is assigned to protect Ross for the weekend.  On Monday morning, he'll give testimony.  Bullitt and two other detectives meet Ross at a rundown hotel with inconveniently large windows.  They will work 8 hour shifts.  At 1 in the morning, two hitters gun down both Detective Stanton and Ross.  Both are alive but Ross is critical.  Chalmers can't wait to lay the blame on Bullitt.

Despite having one of the most iconic car chases in all of cinema, the movie is rather slow.  Bullitt is a world-weary veteran cop who is unfazed by the violence he sees.  His girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), is shocked by this and wonders what the future holds for them if he is so numb to the horror.  The investigation, such as it is, is slow and plodding.  There are scenes that drag with no payoff.  Must we watch as the detectives sort through luggage?  The plot is excellent, a clever switcheroo, but the overall execution is mostly dull.  Take out the 10 minute car chase and this ceases to be a noteworthy film.

Though groundbreaking in its day, the movie is rather pedestrian now.  Later movies did every facet of this one better.  This is the first draft.  Just okay.

The Brass Verdict

It's been two years since Mickey Haller was shot during The Lincoln Lawyer and it hasn't been a good two years.  Pain killers led to addiction and addiction led to not practicing law for a year now.  He thinks he's ready to make a comeback when an old associate, Jerry Vincent, is murdered.  To his amazement, he is assigned Vincent's caseload, which includes the high-profile Walter Elliot case.  Elliot, the head of Archway Studios, has been accused of murdering his wife and her lover.  It is the latest trial-of-the-decade.  To complicate matters, Detective Harry Bosch is investigating the murder of Vincent and constantly asks questions that give Haller pause regarding Elliot.  Would the person who murdered Vincent now target him?  Among his other problems are reporter Jack McAvoy (protagonist of The Poet), his perpetually disappointed ex-wife, his daughter who thinks he always represents the bad guys, and another ex-wife who is his accountant and dating his investigator.

Here is yet another page-turner from Michael Connelly.   Haller, who is a defense attorney, is a big shift from the usual prosecutorial view one gets in a Bosch novel; it's really amazing that Connelly can flip the table and write an equally exciting book.  It is entertaining to see Bosch from this perspective.  He comes across as very gruff and unfriendly when he isn't the point of view character.  Really, I thought he was a jerk and Mickey was entirely too deferential.  Jack McAvoy had already appeared as a nuisance for Bosch and now needles Haller.  Funny.

Outstanding book and highly recommended.

Political Show Trial

It is a given that Trump cannot be convicted.  In any normal proceeding, the prosecutor would drop the case rather than have the jury acquit.  It is a waste of time and money to pursue a case that cannot be won.  So what is the point?

First, it is a political show trial.  The winning party wants to march the losing party around and throw rotten fruit.  Yeah, this is just the thing to promote 'unity' in the wake of a disputed election.  Brilliant.

Second, it is a distraction.  During the Obama Administration, there was always the latest scandal - at least on Fox News - that was overshadowed by the next one before the last one played out.  It turned out that the press, and the public, have a short attention span.  Obama would do something - say, the Iran Deal or drone strike an American in the Middle East, or say you could keep your doctor, etc - and the press would jump on it.  Before the story could really rise to the level of a national scandal, he'd rollout something else that would be the new feeding frenzy, the last one forgotten.  It was a surprisingly effective tactic.  In fact, because none of the stories was ever pursued in depth, he left office with a supposedly scandal-free administration.  Trump did something very similar.  He would diminish a war hero, imply a rival's father was involved in the Kennedy Assassination, spout demeaning nicknames, attack the press as fake news, and so forth.  While the media frothed on about his bad manners, he would advance his agenda out of sight.  While a pointless impeachment unfolds, all eyes will be on it.  What is going on where it matters?

Third, demonstrate the uselessness of the government.  Congress doesn't really do anything.  Despite being the first branch of government, it has voluntarily reduced itself to the third.  Each party plays defense for their guy in the White House and mostly follows the president's lead.  Rather than risk angering the voters by making any real decisions, they delegate all the tough decisions to the courts - who can't be voted out - or various bureaucrats - who also can't be voted out.

Forced to choose, I would select "all of the above."

The Angry Astronaut

I watch a lot of YouTube videos that cover spaceflight, whether that be about the history of the Apollo Program, the shuttle, or the current advancements of SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, or Blue Origin.  On that account, The Angry Astronaut appeared in my feed.  Though not an astronaut, he is angry.  Initially, I was turned off by his angry shtick and ditched out of the first video I watched.  However, he kept showing in my queue and some of the topics were not covered by other vloggers.  I gave him another shot.  It turns out that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of space-related topics.  He is the biggest cheerleader for a Mars colony with the exception of Elon Musk.  His channel covers every idea you can imagine about space exploration, from spacesuits and nuclear engines to possible life on Venus, Mars, or beyond the Solar system.  He is often pissed off by great ideas that were considered in the 1960s but never implemented.

If you are following the current space race, The Angry Astronaut provides great insight into almost every facet of it.  Highly recommended.

The Overlook

Bosch and new partner Ignacio "Iggy" Ferras are summoned to a homicide at midnight.  Dr. Stanley Kent has been found dead next to his car at an overlook of the city.  Harry has hardly begun to examine the scene when Rachel Walling of the FBI arrives.  When Kent's name was posted, the FBI was informed.  It turns out that Kent had access to cesium, a highly radioactive metal that is used in cancer treatments.  If such fell into the wrong hands, it could be used for a dirty bomb.  Harry and Rachel drive to the Kent residence to check on Mrs. Kent.  They find her naked and bound in the bedroom.  She explains how two hooded men had barged into the house and demanded access to her email.  The detectives soon found a picture of Mrs. Kent bound on the bed had been sent to Dr. Kent with a demand that cesium be provided at the overlook.  At that point, the FBI plans to exclude the LAPD.  The homicide is now secondary.  Harry pulls every string he can to stay on the case.  If he can solve the homicide, he should find the cesium.  While the FBI pursue Islamic terrorists, Bosch suspects that's a distraction.

An unusually short novel for Connelly, it is nonetheless very good.  It moves at a lightning clip and shows Bosch as the master detective.  It's not that he's Sherlock Holmes with the deductions but that he is a stickler for every detail.  Highly recommended.

Echo Park

13 years ago, Harry Bosch and his partner Jerry Edgar had worked on a high-profile case.  Marie Gesto had vanished and is presumed dead.  At the time, they were unable to solve it.  However, Harry never forgot and routinely checked the file out of archives and worked it.  It just so happened that he had it checked out when the district attorney needed it.  The recently arrested Raynard Waits, AKA the Echo Park Bagman, was willing to clear multiple homicides to avoid the death penalty; Gesto was one.  Before he hands over the file, Bosch maneuvers his way into the process.  Harry and his current partner, Kiz Rider, question Raynard Waits.  Bosch thinks the guy is lying.  The DA decides to test Waits.  If he can lead them to the body of Marie Gesto, that would clinch it.  The following day, Bosch, Rider, the DA, Waits' lawyer, Detective Olivas, a deputy sheriff with a shotgun, a camera man, and a forensic investigator drive out to a remote canyon with Raynard Waits in tow.  Wearing cuffs, Waits guides them unerring to a body.  On the way back, Waits was uncuffed so he could ascend a steep slope.  He used the opportunity to snatch a gun, kill two, and seriously wound Kiz.  Waits is on the loose.  Now Harry must find Waits' secret lair before he can kill again.

This book, combined with City of Bones, was the first to be adapted for the Amazon TV series.  Waits is one of the better villains in the series.  Highly recommended.

Uncle Tom

Here is a movie that explores right-leaning blacks in America.  Many of them have been called an Uncle Tom or worse for not siding with the Democratic Party.  These are their stories.  What struck me most was when it was noted that they all knew who Jay-Z was (a self-admitted drug dealer) but not Thomas Sowell, a Harvard graduate and noted cultural commentator.  The media highlights left-leaning blacks but attacks right-leaning ones.  When Kanye met with Trump, he was said to be off his meds.  Candace Owens has been linked to white supremacy despite being black.  The theme is that blacks who don't toe the liberal line will be ostracized and attacked by those who do.  Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Larry Elder have spent decades countering the idea that blacks can't advance because of racism in America.  The most successful blacks in America today are Nigerians.  Why?  Because they haven't been told since birth that racism in America will never let them succeed.  It is not by chance that black Americans are marinated in the racist America myth.  Those who embrace the myth will vote Democrat and those who don't will be called Uncle Toms and race traitors.  Not an accident.  Herman Cain, an extremely successful business man and one-time presidential nominee, talks about his life and rise to success.  He says that hard work pays.  Ben Carson, a famous brain surgeon and also a presidential nominee, has been regularly mocked by late night comics.  If you are black and on the left, it is racist to mock you.  If you are black and on the right, you are fair game.

This is an excellent film that shines a light on the other side of this conversation, a side that is mostly hidden.  See this movie!