Transfiguration

Whistleblower films on DVD and Blu-ray

by Tony Dayoub

What is our attraction to movies about whistleblowers? Is it our admiration of one loner speaking truth to power when confronted with an injustice that person may have been a party to? Or is it our own distrust of the establishment, an inborn characteristic in the more rebellious of us, conscious of the way our own place in the world came to be when our forefathers overthrew the armed forces of their mother country? It's arguable whether the humdrum phone hacking scandal — which started with the News of the World and has embroiled everyone from its parent company's CEO, Rupert Murdoch, to talk show host Piers Morgan — registered much with the average American until the mysterious death of 47-year-old Sean Hoare. A former reporter for the British tabloid, Hoare was one of the first to expose the newspaper's questionable methods of acquiring information. Speculation immediately drifted towards some conspiracy angle despite Hoare's notorious abuse of drugs and alcohol.

Karl Malden

This is a brief acknowledgement of Karl Malden's death on Wednesday since I am not as familiar with the man as I wish I was. Early in my life, he made a personal impact on me as Detective Lt. Mike Stone on TV's The Streets of San Francisco (1972-77), where he exhibited some wonderful chemistry with a young Michael Douglas. And of course he was even better known to my generation for his stint in the 80s as a pitchman for American Express ("Don't leave home without them"). But later, it was through my discovery of his wonderful supporting performances in films as varied as A Streetcar Named Desire(1951), On the Waterfront(1954), and Patton (1970), that he truly reached a measure of eminence. His ability to mix a working-class everyman quality with a certain level of dignity made him a character actor with a pliability that one rarely finds in today's performers. He died on July 1st at the age of 97. Recommended Films - A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Baby Doll, One-Eyed Jacks, Birdman of Alcatraz, Gypsy, How the West Was Won, The Cincinnati Kid, Billion Dollar Brain, Patton