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Having run 70 marathons, this is near the top of my favorite marathons. I thought I was doing fine until a lady runner who had completed Boston on Monday, ran the course at 2:30 AM passed me during the regular marathon. I am already eager to run it in 2014 for my 5th year.
I knew that this would be 'America's toughest road marathon'. I was not disappointed, there were hills, hills and even more hills. They almost killed me but fantastic volunteeres kept me alive. Thank you Roanoke for a great race!
This is a very challenging, fun course with spectacular views from the top of the mountain. The volunteers and organization of the race were great. I have run this race twice and they make improvements each year. The water stations and volunteers along the way were wonderful and they had great refreshments at the end - loved the chocolate milk :)
Tough but beautiful course
Beautiful course. Challenging but worth the personal reward! Great staff, well organized.
This was my first half marathon, I have to say I did not train for it I am not a runner that runs everyday, I work out alot cardio and weights. I ran 3 miles 4 weeks before the event I did not train for it I don't recomend doing the race with out traning like I did It is a hard race.I had so much fun the staff was wounderful to work with the runners were so nice and incouraged me when they would pass me.I had the best time it was hard I will say that I even finished with a time I was proud of sence I did not train for it. I will do this race again because the people were so nice and I have never seen so much help and incouragement in a sport as I did this marathon. I have started running this race gave me a passion to do so. Thank you all I loved the race for my first half marathon I picked Americas Toughest Road Course I am glad I did it was a wounderful experience.
This is a TOUGH course with three major climbs and multiple smaller climbs, but it was worthwhile. The scenery is gorgeous with mountain views of blooming dogwood and redbud trees. The race organization is excellent and the spectators are enthusiastic. This race course is challenging but it was worth the extra effort to reach the finish line. I want to thank the RD, staff, volunteers and spectators for making this a great race.
A tough, but first class race. Well organized and well run.
I loved the half marathon course - challenging but not killer. I could enjoy a beautiful spring day and the scenic route while running one of my best 13.1 races. Tackling the mountain first made the rest of the race enjoyable. Everything was incredibly organized, especially post race events.
The event was well organized, the course was as challenging as advertised and the volunteers were great. Roanoke is a beautiful city, worth coming back to whether for the race or just a vacation.
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In a sign of disunity at the Pentagon over the coming Sept. 11 trial, a senior Defense Department official on Friday refused to scratch a conspiracy charge from the death penalty case, a move sought by the prosecution to make any future conviction less vulnerable to civilian appeal.
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the chief war crimes prosecutor, disclosed on Jan. 9 that he decided not to pursue the conspiracy charge in the Pentagons highest profile Guantánamo case to ensure the prosecution proceeds undeterred by legal challenge.
But retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald, a lawyer who has oversight of the war court, refused to remove the charge in a decision announced on Friday afternoon, said Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman.
The development is the latest tug-of-war over how to put on trial alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the former CIA captive who was waterboarded 183 times, and four other alleged trainers and financiers of the 19 men who hijacked four planes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Attorney General Eric Holder wanted the men tried in a traditional federal court, before a civilian judge and jury in New York City. Congress blocked the trial. So Holder turned the case over to the Pentagon.
Now the civilian courts are looking at the authority of the tribunals created by President George W. Bush and reformed by President Barack Obama. One question is whether conspiracy is a war crime. Its not in international courts, and the prosecutor has said a civilian court might overturn a conspiracy conviction. He wants to use the other more well-established war crimes charges murder, terrorism and attacking civilians.
That threat of a conviction being overturned on appeal is real.
A civilian court in October overturned the 2007 Guantánamo conviction of Osama bin Ladens driver, Salim Hamdan. His military jury found him guilty of providing material support for terror, a war crime created in 2006, for crimes that occurred before his capture, in 2001. Congress also created conspiracy as a war crime in 2006 five years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
MacDonald noted that dismissal at this time would be premature, said Breasseale, as the viability of conspiracy as a chargeable offense in trials by military commission is still pending appellate review.
But Martins may have already anticipated Fridays setback to his ambition of more narrowly tailoring the Sept. 11 trial.
On Wednesday, he filed a sealed motion entitled Government Motion to Make Minor Changes to the Charge Sheet asking the war court judge, Army Col. James Pohl, to use his authority to scratch the conspiracy charge. It was still under seal Friday, but attorney Jay Connell, defending alleged 9/11 conspirator Ammar al Baluchi, said the motion includes a copy of the charge sheet with Charge No. 1, Conspiracy, scratched out with a trademark military prosecutors Z.
In the motion, prosecutors propose to retain a 167-item narrative that describes the alleged conspiracy but as a free-floating introduction of sorts that goes on for 17 pages before it reaches the first charge brought to trial, Attacking Civilians. Murder and terrorism follow.
The flurry of filings comes as lawyers prepare for Jan. 28-31 pre-trial hearings in the case.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pain management or pain medicine is the branch of medicine that specialises in the relief and management of people suffering from chronic pain. Pain management specialists usually work in co-ordinated multi-disciplinary teams that comprise occupational therapists, psychologists, and physiotherapists. Medication management, acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, and surgery can also be used within pain management, depending on the circumstances and the cause(s) of the pain.
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text: EQUITY INVESTORS SERVICES Olympia Equity Investors is a private, opportunity-driven real estate development company with a focus on the hotel and office sectors. As our tenant, partner or principle, we'll help you realize significant returns and maximize the value of your asset. Since 1967, The Olympia Companies have been known for excellent property repositioning and expansion capabilities. In 1997, we began the acquisition and development of additional properties under the name of Olympia Equity investors (OEI). Our tenant-oriented philosophies, plus fiscal conservatism and sophisticated banking relationships, give us the ability to create financially secure projects, extract maximum value, and deliver significant returns. |


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About a week ago, students and faculty arrived at the UND Hughes Fine Arts Center to find that some objects along the sidewalk to the building?s west entrance had been yarn bombed. Four light poles and a tree were covered with yarn in lots of bright colors with ruffles and fringe. Herald photo by John Stennes.
Read the article: Yarn bombs strike UND, colorful anarchy ensues


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The Hub Autumn Edition - The Latest News from HotChillee
Friday 18th October 2013Following an extremely busy summer, please find below the Autumn Hub. We review the final event in our global series; the Alpine Challenge and also our newest addition Le Grand Truc. Thank you to all the inspirational riders we have met throughout the year, we feature some of you in this edition, including those that have completed all three events in the series.
Read More ...Entries open for HotChillee's 2014 Alpine Challenge on 1st October 2013
Wednesday 25th September 2013Entries for the Alpine Challenge 2014, taking place on 3rd to 7th September, open at 12:00 on 1st October 2013. Part of HotChillee's Global Event Series, the three day event pushes riders mentally and physically, with a gruelling 8000+ metres of climbing across approximately 330kms.
Read More ...


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"Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help."
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Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.
Gordon Sinclair
58% of people like this quote
I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Gordon Sinclair
54% of people like this quote
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany.
Gordon Sinclair
52% of people like this quote
So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
Gordon Sinclair
51% of people like this quote
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios.
Gordon Sinclair
48% of people like this quote


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Nathaniel Read Silver (above), the 34-year-old celebrated and controversial polling analyst for The New York Times, SAID tonight that President Obama has better than nine chances in 10 to win re-election tomorrow over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
(Silver's forecast is on the right side of his FiveThirtyEight Web site.)
Silver estimated that Obama will garner 315 electoral votes and pegged him as an 85-percent favorite to carry the all-important swing state of Ohio. Among the other so-called battleground states, he also rates the president as at least an 80-percent favorite in Iowa, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Four years ...
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"And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made."
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Now they're attracted to one another, but repelled by their ethnic origins, so that there was something to overcome. They had to overcome their own prejudices, which had been imposed by the culture - their own shame at being Mexican and Italian.
Robert Towne
75% of people like this quote
It made me alive to the fact that the most important thing sometimes is what isn't said - to prepare for moments of revelation that can be read entirely on actors' faces without dialogue.
Robert Towne
70% of people like this quote
Finally, Colin Farrell showed up on my doorstep, only he wasn't Colin Farrell - he was just this Irish kid who had read the script and wanted to do it.
Robert Towne
56% of people like this quote


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Dropped Waist Strapless Sweetheart Wedding Gown
Style WG3444
David's Bridal Collection
This item is available in stores and online.*
Stunning lines and graceful construction, this ball gown has it all. Simply perfect for the trend setting bride.
Dropped Waist Strapless Sweetheart Wedding Gown Style WG3444
The fourth dress I tried on
I went in to DB looking for a ball gown dress and tried on three dresses before the consultant finally pulled this one out. As soon as I put it on I knew it was the one. I hadn't seen myself in the mirror yet and I knew! I originally wasn't looking for a dropped waist style dress, but it flatters my figure so well. I've got a large bust, small waist, and big hips. The sweetheart neckline was perfect for my slightly broad shoulders and really narrowed out my sillhouette beautifully. I added a white belt with crystal accents and it brought everything completely together!
October 18, 2013
so beautiful!!!
This wasn't my first choice of dress, but the bridal consultant pulled it out for me to try and wow! I'm a little curvier and this dress shows it in all the right places. So flattering!!!!!
October 5, 2013
This was the second dress I tried on and I couldn't take my eyes of the mirror!! Totally flattered my figure and looked amazing! Plus the price is a bonus!!! Can't wait until my wedding to put it on again!
April 24, 2013
The dress!
I often saw this dress online and I liked it but I didn't think it would be right for my type of body so I would ignore it. When I booked my second appointment at DB, I added more things into my favorites and I was just like, what the heck let's add it. Earlier in that day, I had a feeling I would find "the dress." I liked how you could add the color sash to it. When I walked out of the room and saw myself in it, I literally yelled out, "oh my gosh I love this dress!" I always told myself that I wouldn't immediately say that I loved a dress. I didn't even think twice about saying it, it just came out and I was even surprised I said it. I tried several other dresses on but nothing compared to this one and the consultant even noticed that when I'm in the dress I don't think of any other dress but if I'm in a different dress I would always think about it. I found my dress; it had everything I wanted in a dress. I thought I wanted just a little beading but this dress is AMAZING. It fits all body types. Even though you don't think you'll like it, try it on you never know.
I can't wait for my fiance to see me in this dress. I don't know what kind of dresses he likes but I hope he loves this dress as much as I love it. I don't regret buying this dress at all.
February 21, 2013
*Color & Style representation may vary by monitor. Not responsible for typographical or pictorial errors. Product availability varies by store and online. Some in-store purchases require special order and markdown styles cannot be special ordered. Contact your local store for details.


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World Christian Action Conference
The WCAC is Bethel's annual student mission's conference. It is held in January and most of the campus is mobilized for the event.
Missionaries from about 20 different mission organizations arrive at the beginning of the week. They are housed either on the campus with students or in the homes of various faculty, staff, and/or friends of the college.
A special "missions' speaker" is enlisted to speak about issues of cross-cultural vision and ministry. Five different chapel services are held over a 3-day period of time. Nationally known mission communicators such as George Verber, Marilyn Laszlo, David Polluck, Sammy Tipit and John Perkins have served as the main speakers for the conference. Missionaries-in-Residence, Bill and Debbie Jones, have had the privilege of talking with many Bethel students who have received their call to service during one of these chapel services.
Classes are cancelled for part of Wednesday and Thursday so that students may attend various workshops and seminars led by mission representatives and others who are knowledgeable on a specific topic. Students may choose in advance from 40 different seminars and workshops, such as:
- Candidating with a Mission's Agency – What You Need to Know
- Understanding Islam in the Middle East
- How to be a Youth Pastor with a World Vision
- Making Fund Raising a Ministry
- Using "Teaching English" as an Evangelistic Tool
One of the greatest parts of the WCAC is the collection of mission displays and booths that are set up in the Dining Commons. Many Bethel students have found opportunities for summer internships and jobs, as well as long term missionary service at these booths. Mission agency representatives man the display booths during meals for 3 days of the conference. Students are able to interact with the representatives regarding their personal questions and concerns. One way we facilitate these discussions is through student "day hosts".
Day Hosts
"Day hosts" are members of Kingdom Mobilizers (Bethel's student mission fellowship) and serve as a host to mission representatives and see that they are not only introduced to other students but also that a dialog between them is started.


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A legacy of care
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Our bodies, which create a tremendous amount of internal heat, are normally cooled through sweating and radiating heat through our skin. Under certain circumstances, such as unusually high temperatures, high humidity, or vigorous exercise in hot weather, this natural cooling system may begin to fail, allowing internal heat to build up to dangerous levels. The result may be heat illness, which can result in heat cramps, heat exhaustion, or heatstroke.
Heat cramps are brief, severe cramps in the muscles of the legs, arms, or abdomen that may occur during or after vigorous exercise in extreme heat. The sweating that occurs with vigorous exercise causes the body to lose salts and fluids. And the low level of salts causes the muscles to cramp.
Kids are particularly susceptible to heat cramps when they haven't been drinking enough fluids. Although painful, heat cramps aren't serious.
Most heat cramps don't require special treatment. A cool place, rest, and fluids should ease a child's discomfort. Massaging cramped muscles may also help.
Heat exhaustion is a more severe heat illness that can occur when someone in a hot climate or environment hasn't been drinking enough fluids. Symptoms may include:
If left untreated, heat exhaustion may escalate into heatstroke, which can be fatal.
The most severe form of heat illness, heatstroke is a life-threatening medical emergency. The body loses its ability to regulate its own temperature. Body temperature can soar to 106° F (41.1° C) or even higher, leading to brain damage or even death if it isn't quickly treated. Prompt medical treatment is required to bring the body temperature under control.
Factors that increase the risk for heatstroke include overdressing and extreme physical exertion in hot weather with inadequate fluid intake.
Heatstroke also can happen when a child is left in, or becomes accidentally trapped in, a car on a hot day. When the outside temperature is 93° F (33.9° C), the temperature inside a car can reach 125° F (51.7° C) in just 20 minutes, quickly raising body temperature to dangerous levels.
Call for emergency medical help if your child has been outside in the sun exercising for a long time and shows one or more of these symptoms of heatstroke:
While waiting for help:
To help protect kids from heat illness:
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD Date reviewed: October 2010


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Hiya, Bratz!
Cloe here, and I'm super stoked to tell you about our brand new Real Bratz movement! We are collecting video submissions from our Real Bratz besties, like YOU! All you have to do is make a short video telling us what makes you a Real Bratz. From the videos, we will pick a few totally ahhh-mazing Real Bratz to honor as the heroes we know they truly are.
I know you are ALL totally fabnomenal Real Bratzies. But if you're not sure what it takes to be one of the Real Bratz, read the description below. I bet you'll find it describes totally awesome, totally unique, totally cool YOU!
Who are Real Bratz?
Watch this video and find out!!!
Real Bratz work hard to push the boundaries of what they think they can be.
Real Bratz stand up for their passions and encourage others to do the same.
Real Bratz give back by lending a hand where no one else knew a hand was needed.
Real Bratz see the impossible… and make it possible.
Real Bratz think outside the box, innovate and invent, and bring new ideas and concepts into the world.
Real Bratz are everywhere, in every classroom, in every neighborhood, in every city, and all around the globe. They exceed expectations in their youth, and grow up to continue to work hard and make the world a better place, both locally and internationally.
They are out there… AND WE WANT TO HEAR THEIR STORIES!!!!
This year, we want to recognize all of our Real Bratz for their hard work.
Are YOU a Real Bratz?
Submit a video and you could be the next Real Bratz hero we honor!!
Make a video, no longer than three-minutes, telling us what makes you a Real Bratz. Email the video to firstname.lastname@example.com
For more information on what we are looking for, read the Real Bratz Submission Guidelines.
Then read and sign the Real Bratz Release Form and send to us with your video!
We look forward to watching all of your totally awesome submissions!!
Real Bratz 4 Life!!


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Health & Sports
Fitness author Tom Venuto can help you build muscle.
Lee brought Chinese martial arts to Hollywood using a singular new approach. This is how he did it.
Our fitness writer James Fell chatted with MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage about the unique physicality they face on set.
Achieving great abs is no easy task. Here are 10 great stomach burners to slip in with your other sets.
These are the techniques you need - and they range from basic to advanced.
The majority of pro athletes in America are training with this minimalist system. Now you can, too.
Are you going to let a little snow keep you from getting in shape?
Real Madrid's Gareth Bale gives AskMen an exclusive interview - and talks about his star teammate and his ambitions.
Instead of sitting on the couch playing video games, use the Training for Warriors program - and become one.
Working out at dawn is tough, but there are countless benefits to doing so.
With the clock ticking, we tackle the big issues for Brazil 2014.
But will it give you energy - or a huge gut?
Are You Too Obsessed With Diet Perfection?
Why Preparing Your Own Food Is The Secret To Weight Loss
Why The Basic Exercises Are Still The Best
The Importance Of Training At Your Own Level
The Benefits Of High Intensity Interval Training
Do you feel like you spend all your free time working out? Here's how to change that.
Mark Webber will race his final Grand Prix in Brazil. But after 8 straight wins, the spotlight is Vettel's.
James Fell makes Rob Ford an offer he shouldn't refuse, but probably will.
Behind the bright lights, there's a world that we rarely see.
The UFC champion's recent comments represent a starkly different person from the man we met a year ago. Has his career damaged him irreperably?
Witness the men who make average men feel bad about themselves.
His new book has a tough-love approach to motivate you to get fit. Because of course it does.
For Alfred Morris, becoming a record-breaking RB has been tough. He tells us what his secret is.
Two world-class athletes reveal their secret formula to winning the world's toughest race.


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Early Offer: Bama's Napier climbing charts
September, 20, 2013
Sep 20
Jeremy Crabtree | ESPN.com
The Early Offer is RecruitingNation's latest feature, giving you a daily dose of recruiting in the mornings. Today's offerings: Billy Napier has a great reputation as a recruiter and is proving it this season for the Crimson Tide; despite a season-ending injury, running back Shai McKenzie received good news from schools recruiting him; Auburn could be the team to watch in the SEC if the Tigers continue to win ball games.
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History of Mapping the Civil War - Civil War Maps
War, like necessity, has been called the mother of invention. The same might be said of cartography, for with every war there is a great rush to produce maps to aid in ...
Site/Collection: Civil War Maps Original Format: Map - Web Page Date: 2008-08-04 -
Overview - Hotchkiss Map Collection
The Hotchkiss Map Collection contains cartographic items made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899), a topographic engineer in the Confederate Army. Hotchkiss made detailed battle maps primarily of the Shenandoah Valley, some of ...
Site/Collection: Hotchkiss Map Collection - Main Catalog Original Format: Map - Web Page Date: 1828-01-01 View catalog record -
Overview - Civil War Maps
Civil War Maps brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and ...
Site/Collection: Civil War Maps - Main Catalog Original Format: Web Page - Map Date: 2008-08-04 View catalog record -
The Hotchkiss Collection of Confederate Maps - Hotchkiss Map Collection
by Clara LeGear Jedediah Hotchkiss was born at Windsor, Broome County, N. Y., November 30, 1828. He was graduated from the Windsor Academy and early showed great interest in botany and in ...
Site/Collection: Hotchkiss Map Collection Original Format: Map - Web Page Date: 1948-11-01


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Forman, Milos
Milos Forman 1932-
(Full name Jan Tomas Forman; also spelled Miloš Forman) Czechoslovakian-born American director, screenwriter, and memoirist.
The following entry presents an overview of Forman's career through 2000.
During the 1960s Forman was recognized as one of Eastern Europe's most sardonic and accomplished filmmakers. Leaving his homeland of Czechoslovakia after the Soviet Invasion of 1968, Forman relocated to the United States, where he gained notoriety for directing film adaptations of several critically acclaimed literary and theatrical works by such authors as E. L. Doctorow, Ken Kesey, and Peter Shaffer. In 2000, when the American Film Institute compiled its list of the top 100 films of all time, two of Forman's films—One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984)—were ranked as 20 and 53, respectively. His films offer a refined blend of realism and naturalism, often featuring the theme of the common man struggling within an oppressive society.
Biographical Information
Forman was born on February 18, 1932, in Cáslav, Czechoslovakia, to Rudolf, a Jewish professor, and Anna, a Protestant homemaker. During his youth Forman's parents were imprisoned by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. His mother died in Auschwitz in 1943 and his father died in Buchenwald in 1944. In 1951 Forman enrolled at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague. Upon graduating he worked as a director and screenwriter for Czech television, and as an assistant director of short films. His first full-length films, Cerný Petr (1963; Black Peter), and Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), both received critical honors, including the Grand International Prize from the French Film Academy. His third film, Horí, má panenko (1967; The Firemen's Ball), met with controversy when forty-thousand Czechoslovakian firemen walked off their jobs following the film's release. Forman was forced to make a public apology, explaining that the film was a political allegory and not intended as a slur against the fire department. The Firemen's Ball was eventually banned in Czechoslovakia by the reigning Soviet regime. During the Soviet Invasion of 1968 Forman was scouting film locations in Paris and elected to emigrate to America instead of returning to his home country. His first American film, Taking Off (1971), was neither a popular nor critical success. However, his next film, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, won five Academy Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including best picture and best director. In 1978 Forman joined the staff at Columbia University as a professor of film and co-chair of the film division of their School of the Arts. Forman was awarded the Academy Award for best director again in 1984 for Amadeus—which won eight Academy Awards overall, including best picture. He was also nominated for the best director award for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).
Major Works
Forman's early career as a director and screenwriter in Czechoslovakia was integral to a movement later known as the Czech "New Wave" of theater and arts. Noted for its blend of fiction and realism, the movement included directors who used the government-controlled film industry to explore the problems of living in a totalitarian society. His first feature film, Black Peter, is a partially autobiographical tale about a dispirited young man who works in a department store, arbitrarily reporting on shoplifters. Loves of a Blonde follows the life of an unhappy factory worker named Andula. Her small town has a ratio of sixteen women to every man, forcing Andula to make desperate and awkward attempts at finding romance. She falls in love with a young pianist and relentlessly pursues him, eventually following him to Prague. Despite the controversy surrounding the release of The Firemen's Ball, the film was well received by critics and audiences alike. The story centers around a well meaning but inept fire department that wishes to honor their retiring chief with a gala ceremony. Despite their good intentions, the banquet comically falls apart due to problems with the door raffle, a poorly-planned beauty contest, and a nearby house fire. The film's political allegory links the ineptitude and bickering of the firemen to the oppressive bureaucracy of the Czechoslovakian government. For his first American film, Forman directed and co-wrote Taking Off, which depicts the increasingly permissive American society of the late 1960s as personified by a staid businessman named Larry Tyne and his family. When Larry's daughter Jeannie becomes involved in a Greenwich Village theatre production in New York City, Larry and his wife try to acquaint themselves with their daughter's environment in an attempt to convince her to return home. They attend a meeting of the Society for Parents of Fugitive Children, where they learn how to smoke marijuana, and they venture into "The Village," where they are appalled by the habitants' casual attitude towards sex and drugs.
In 1975 Forman directed One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, an adaptation of Ken Kesey's critically acclaimed novel. The film focuses on a battle of wills between R. P. McMurphy, an antisocial but engaging patient in a mental hospital, and Nurse Ratched, the domineering head-nurse who attempts to force McMurphy to conform to an established behavioral pattern. McMurphy inspires the other patients to rebel against Ratched's strict rules and regulations in a variety of ways. After a young patient commits suicide, McMurphy physically attacks Ratched, causing the hospital to lobotomize him. Forman revisited this theme of an individual fighting against the Establishment with his 1979 adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Hair. John Savage, a small-town farmboy, comes to New York City to experience life before being drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. Savage falls in with a group of hippies and radicals living in Central Park who embody the counter-culture of the 1960s. Ragtime (1981), an adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's novel, follows multiple characters and storylines, and is set against the backdrop of the early 1900s. The lead characters include Coalhouse Walker, a proud young African American who single-mindedly pursues restitution for the social injustices he has suffered. The film examines values in transition in turn-of-the-century America and explores the ways the nation coped with post-Civil War racial issues and dealt with the cultural changes brought by the expanding immigrant population. In 1984 Forman directed Amadeus, which was adapted from the play by Peter Shaffer. The film is loosely based on the life of renowned composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, focusing on the relationship between Mozart and his mentor, Antonio Salieri. Mozart is depicted as a childish and outrageous genius who flouts social norms and contemptuously rejects many of the personal and artistic ideals that Salieri holds sacred. Valmont (1989), an adaptation of the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, marked Forman's first return to screenwriting since Taking Off. The film—which Forman also directed—depicts a cold and cunning game of seduction played by Valmont, a rogue gentleman, and a manipulative lady, the Marquise de Meureuil. Set amongst the Parisian salons of pre-Revolutionary France, the film portrays Valmont as a confused young man who, despite his notorious amorous adventures, is only discovering his sexuality. Forman's next film, The People vs. Larry Flynt is based on the life of Larry Flynt, the founder of the pornographic magazine Hustler. Flynt turned Hustler into the foundation for a multi-million dollar publishing empire and waged several legal battles involving issues of moral decency against Reverend Jerry Falwell and financier Charles Keating. Despite the fact that Flynt is a pornographer and former drug user, Forman characterizes him as a champion of the First Amendment right to free speech. In 1999 Forman directed Man on the Moon, a film based on the life of comedian and actor Andy Kaufman, who became known during the 1970s and early 1980s for his bizarre and experimental comedy routines. Forman depicts Kaufman as a misunderstood performance artist who enjoyed pushing the boundaries of comedy in order to get a reaction from his audience, even if the reaction was negative. Forman has also published a memoir, Turnaround (1994), which recounts his early days in Czechoslovakia and his successful career as a filmmaker.
Critical Reception
Critical reception to Forman's films has been varied throughout his career. His early Czechoslovakian films have been praised by international audiences, even though the Soviet regime at the time banned several of his works. Reviewers have consistently praised Forman's ability to show the universality of human emotions, complimenting his tendency to present well-rounded characterizations. Some critics, however, have objected to Forman's American films—particularly Hair, Ragtime, and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest—pointing out that Forman's European sensibility hampered his adaptations of such singularly American works. Several reviewers have also criticized Ragtime for overly truncating or ignoring the novel on which it was based, though some have asserted that the novel's complex plot structure is primarily to blame for Forman's loose adaptation. The People vs. Larry Flynt has met with sharply divided criticism, with some critics praising the film's anti-Establishment message and others declaring that the film acts as propaganda for pornographers. A number of noted feminist critics, including Gloria Steinem, have argued that Forman glosses over many of the facts of Flynt's life and portrays him as a champion of justice, while his magazine routinely degrades women and mocks rape and child abuse. Other commentators have argued that the film uses Flynt's life as an allegory and that Forman is not obliged to factually recount every event from Flynt's life. Several critics agree that, despite the subject material, The People vs. Larry Flynt ultimately conveys a positive message about the American right to free speech.
Principal Works
Stenata [with Ivo Novák] (screenplay) 1957
Laterna magica II [The Magic Lantern; screenwriter and director] (short film) 1960
*Cerný Petr [Black Peter; screenwriter with Jaroslav Papousek; director] (film) 1963
Kdyby ty muziky nebyly [If It Wasn't for Music; screenwriter with Ivan Passer; director] (film) 1963
Konkurs [Audition; screenwriter with Ivan Passer; director] (film) 1963
†Lásky jedné plavovlásky [Loves of a Blonde; screenwriter with Jaroslav Papousek, Ivan Passer, and Václav Sasek; director] (film) 1965
Horí, má panenko [The Firemen's Ball; screenwriter with Jaroslav Papousek, Ivan Passer, and Václav Sasek; director] (film) 1967
Taking Off [screenwriter with Jean-Claude Carrière, John Guare, and John Klein; director] (film) 1971
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest [director] (film) 1975
Hair [director] (film) 1979
Ragtime [director] (film) 1981
Amadeus [director] (film) 1984
‡Valmont [screenwriter with Jean-Claude Carrière and Jan Novák; director] (film) 1989
Turnaround: A Memoir [with Jan Novák] (memoirs) 1994
The People vs. Larry Flynt...
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SOURCE: Dyer, Peter John. "Star-Crossed in Prague." Sight and Sound 35, no. 1 (winter 1965-1966): 34-5.
[In the following essay, Dyer examines Forman's emphasis on celebrating the emotions of his characters in Peter and Pavla and A Blonde in Love.]
Directors cannot be relied upon to look and sound like the films which they make. Milos Forman, who with two Czech films has made much the same quiet impact as Olmi did a few years ago, can. There's no good reason why one should expect him to live up to the image which his films create. It is simply interesting that—having lunch with him, hearing him introduce his latest film at the London Film Festival—his personality confirms one's feeling about his work. He has a puckish wit and a puckish love of pulling strings, like some benevolent puppet-master. Now that Central European directors of Shakespeare are all the rage, one would love to see him bring his fresh modern eye to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The ingredients seem tailor-made: mechanicals, star-crossed lovers, Oberon the supreme puppet-master and Pucholt playing Puck (obviously).
Peter and Pavla and A Blonde in Love are about the same things: adolescent difficulties with the other sex, a tangle of cross-purposes between boys and their parents, the dissatisfaction and search for identity suffered by only ordinarily intelligent boys and girls in...
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SOURCE: Coleman, John. "Milos Forman, Marco Bellachio." New Statesman 71, no. 1836 (20 May 1966): 746.
[In the following excerpt, Coleman praises A Blonde in Love, complimenting Forman's subtlety, proficiency, and simplistic directing style.]
Milos Forman's A Blonde in Love is a wonderful film concerning, among other things, young love, sexual and social timidity, parental incomprehension, and the problems of a Czech community where the ratio of women to men is 16 to one. It's so much of a piece in fact, so funny and painful and precise in its observation of a sector of the human condition, that it presents a very real problem: how to describe it adequately? It enlists itself in that—to me—central tradition of filmmaking which includes the works of Renoir, Satyajit Ray, Ozu, Truffaut, Olmi, the earlier De Sica and, most recently, James Ivory. Such men seem not only to have been born with a natural and happy instinct for expressing themselves in cinema but to bring to it a generosity of spirit, an intelligent openness and gaiety towards others, which gives them something authentic to express.
It may be time to declare my square predisposition towards most, if not all, their works now that irate Godard fans write in accusing me of hating movies. In certain highly-strung quarters M. Godard seems indeed to have become synonymous with 'movies.' As I tried to point...
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SOURCE: Hartung, Philip T. "Czech Mates." Commonweal 85, no. 6 (11 November 1966): 166-67.
[In the following excerpt, Hartung offers a positive assessment of Forman's casting choices in Loves of a Blonde.]
Now in general release is Loves of a Blonde, the Czech movie that opened the New York Film Festival in September and won huzzas from most of the reviewers. Perhaps the critics, impressed with the glamor of this opening night, let some of their enthusiasm spill over into their reviews of this heart-warming and unpretentious little picture about romance-hungry adolescents. In any case, audiences can now judge for themselves—and they will find Loves a well directed movie with a slight plot, some sharp character portraits, and a few delightfully realistic scenes. But for all its assets, a masterpiece with depth and scope it is not; and for my money, Intimate Lightning, another Czech comedy shown at this year's Festival, has greater humor, understanding and universality.
In telling the tale of Andula, a naive and romantic blonde who works in a shoe factory in a small town where there's a shortage of boys, director Milos Forman does come through with universal touches; and as you watch Andula and her girl friends and some of those boy friends, you begin to wonder if young people aren't pretty much alike the world over. Forman by no means limits himself to...
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SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. "Stanley Kauffmann on Films." New Republic 164, no. 17 (24 April 1971): 20.
[In the following review, Kauffmann commends Forman's artistic vision in Taking Off, but argues that the film lacks consistency and direction.]
Milos Forman had an interesting idea in Taking Off. He wanted to do a film about the generation gap that made its point primarily through pictures. The content of most films, particularly the ones with social themes, is usually conveyed in words and story. Taking Off has words and a story, of course, but they are only the scaffolding for the purely cinematic elements, which really state the theme.
Forman is a young Czech director (Loves of a Blonde, The Firemen's Ball), now working in the US. For a time, I enjoyed what he was doing here in this first American film of his, and I also had some of the same feeling one gets from Victor Sjöstrom's or F. W. Murnau's American films in the '20s: the odd sensation of seeing the very familiar as it looks to someone who is filtering his vision through different conditioning. The cinematographer was Miroslav Ondricek, who did The Firemen's Ball (he also did If … for Lindsay Anderson); between him and Forman, we get a sort of Middle European view of New York and suburbs. That is to say, we get a sense that this society is being observed as stratified...
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SOURCE: Westerbeck, Colin L., Jr. Review of Taking Off, by Milos Forman. Commonweal 94, no. 11 (21 May 1971): 262-63.
[In the following excerpt, Westerbeck offers a negative assessment of Taking Off, noting that the film's ending is "completely arbitrary."]
Like most films about the youth culture, Taking Off should be called Ripping Off. Director Milos Forman doesn't seem to have been satisfied with the usual cynicism of exploiting teenagers merely as paid admissions to his film: he's also exploited them as extras in the film. Taking Off begins in a rehearsal hall where some impresarios of rock are auditioning hundreds of spaced-out, untalented teeny boppers. As the more pathetic auditions were interspliced through the first part of the film, I began wondering how Forman tempted all those girls to make fools of themselves this way. Did he perhaps lead them all to believe these filmed auditions would be their big chance to take off? That's ordinarily how this kind of thing is done, and this kind of thing is the lowest.
One of the girls is Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock). While Jeannie is standing dumbfounded before the microphone, her absence from home is causing her mother (Lynn Carlin) to become hysterical and her father (Buck Henry) to get drunk. When Jeannie finally does return home, it is only to find her parents auditioning their respective neuroses....
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SOURCE: Wilson, David. Review of Taking Off, by Milos Forman. Sight and Sound 40, no. 4 (autumn 1971): 221-22.
[In the following positive review, Wilson discusses Forman's understated directing technique in Taking Off.]
'I think I speak English well enough to understand the "first row." But what's behind that, the double meanings, and all the nuances, which are very beautiful, always this is difficult for me.' Milos Forman needn't have worried about those nuances. Taking Off, which he made in America last summer, is replete with them.
We say we'd like to see ourselves as others see us, but we don't always like what we see. The Czech firemen weren't too pleased about The Firemen's Ball, and Americans—to judge at least from American critical reaction—are somewhat disgruntled by Taking Off. Forman himself tells a story which illuminates the wrongheadedness of this reaction (life, as always, imitating art): when he showed The Firemen's Ball in small towns across the States, audiences couldn't wait to regale him with anecdotes about their own local fire brigades, and many of them, he says, were funnier than anything in the film. Forman's films are not of course about national idiosyncrasies, and Taking Off is no more about middle-class urban Americans than A Blonde in Love was about working-class provincial Czechs. The film is set...
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SOURCE: Wood, Michael, "No, But I Read the Book." New York Review of Books 23, no. 1 (5 February 1976): 3-4.
[In the following excerpt, Wood compliments Forman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, noting that Forman's quieter, more realistic approach to the material adds sensitivity to the story.]
Kubrick is attracted by apparent impossibilities. Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon are all, in their different ways, highly literary texts, works that seem to defy translation into film. ("How did they ever make a film of Lolita?" the advertising asked when the movie was first released—although the question was not prompted by the texture of Nabokov's prose. One critic tartly replied, "They didn't.") Ken Kesey is neither Nabokov nor Burgess nor Thackeray, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest seems to invite translation into film as much as the other books defy it. And yet Miloš Forman [in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest], oddly enough, runs into much the same problems as Kubrick, although with different results.
Kesey's novel is narrated by Chief Broom Bromden, an inmate in a mental hospital who pretends to be deaf and dumb. The Chief sees metaphors. When men are described as rabbits, the rabbits hop before his eyes. When the head nurse on his ward gets angry, the Chief watches the...
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SOURCE: Coleman, John. "You All Crazy?" New Statesman 91, no. 2345 (27 February 1976): 269-70.
[In the following excerpt, Coleman explores the themes of sanity versus insanity and love versus hate in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.]
Ken Kesey's novel [One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest] caused quite a stir when it first appeared in 1962, and rightly. I had heard vaguely of Kesey as a major prophet of the youth revolution, read some disjointed scraps of his somewhere or other, and knew that his book about life in a mental institution was supposed to have been written under the influence of LSD: the auguries were unpromising. But the other day I laid bold hands on the thing and found myself held enough to read it in a single session. Since events are transmitted through the now befogged, now pellucid consciousness of a huge half-Indian, Chief Bromden, it may be that some acid went into the creative melting-pot; but not much, I would hazard. Generally, Kesey has complete control of his material, his characters stick up from the page like so many wounded thumbs, the coherence and humour are in a different league from the ramblings of a Kerouac. There is, however, an underlying theme: one enlivening day a bull of a man called R. P. McMurphy is brought in from a penal work farm, feigning insanity, and in no time at all he has the walking patients (the Acutes, as opposed to the Chronics, the Wheelers,...
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SOURCE: Champlin, Charles. "Hair Comes to the Screen." Los Angeles Times (15 March 1979): section 4, pp. 1, 25.
[In the following review, Champlin assesses the strengths of Hair, calling the film a "poignant reminder" of America during the Vietnam War era.]
Fresh off the bus, duffel bag in hand, the boy from Oklahoma stares in wonderment. A happening is happening in Central Park, Manhattan Island, U.S.A., vintage '60s. Crazy kids with long hair and costume clothes are sporting on the greensward. Then, like a foreboding shadow, two mounted policemen invade the scene, towering over it and monstrously silhouetted, keep the sunshine out.
It looks like curtains for our new friends. But no: The cops' handsome horses break into a sashaying circus two-step in nice time to the rollicking music.
In its sly and marvelous surprise, and in its artful melding of a breezy and literally open-air naturalism with the stylized inventions of the musical form, the introduction of the prancing steeds gets the triumphant Milos Forman film of Hair away to an invigorating, delighting start.
Thereafter, for just over two swift hours, the movie's moods and settings vary dramatically, but its energy, invention and charm never falter.
Hair is the best film musical since...
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SOURCE: Blake, Richard A. "Selective Memory." America 140, no. 13 (7 April 1979): 286.
[In the following excerpt, Blake commends Hair's atmosphere of "great good fun," but cautions against the film's tendency to sanitize historical events.]
Sanitizing the past is easier than living with ugly memories. Self-exoneration is, of course, a key motive for reshaping the past. Today, for example, people who admit they once admired Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communists (and, incidentally, the Constitution) are as rare as those who can recall their enthusiasm for stopping the Red menace in Vietnam. Everybody, it seems, was on the right side from the beginning. The practice of selective memory is harmless enough until it leads to self-delusion. Moreover, simplifying complex periods of history reduces movements to morality plays, and simplistic morality plays can be terribly hollow.
Hair, even without its famous nude scene, was an exciting, even shocking political statement when it opened on Broadway 11 years ago. Not only was it the Magna Carta of the new life style, it reversed the traditional hero and villain roles of American morality plays. Drugs, vulgarity, long hair, loud music and irresponsible sex were good. The U. S. Government and convention, known in some circles as civilization, were bad. The Visigoths had their revenge at long last. It was an...
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SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. "Stanley Kauffmann on Films: Ex-Champions." New Republic 180, no. 15 (14 April 1979): 40-1.
[In the following excerpt, Kauffmann examines the change of public perceptions and attitudes between the original theatrical production of Hair and the release of Forman's film adaptation.]
Hair (United Artists) is chockablock with imaginative lift and pyrotechnical dazzle, all of it apparently intended to forestall question. That question, of course, is: Is Hair dated? Well, most of the songs (most of which have been retained from the original score) are still engaging, and much of the filming is fine. But Hair, even with its now-blanched script, is about a subject, and 10 years have put that subject in a cooler light.
I saw the first production (1967) at the Public Theater in New York, and beyond this song or that performer, I remember feeling throughout the show that the whole high-ceilinged room was being charged with energy, compressed within the walls, and that the walls might burst. Besides its intrinsics, the show had the added power of the Right Moment. For young people, it was their generation's outburst of protest, of relief at being young so that—by non-involvement—they could plead "not guilty" to the corruption with which they charged their elders; for older people it was a reproof by vitality and innocence,...
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SOURCE: Westerbeck, Colin L., Jr. "Hair Today." Commonweal 106, no. 10 (25 May 1979): 305-06.
[In the following review, Westerbeck offers a negative assessment of Hair, criticizing Forman's understanding of American culture and the editing of the film's dance sequences.]
No one lives in the Age of Aquarius today. Its "dawning," celebrated ten years ago in the musical Hair, turned out to be its twilight as well. Still, Hair remains pertinent. It continues to tell us something about our collective life as Americans. Popular shows usually do this. They are a revelation to us of ourselves, especially shows that are surprisingly popular as Hair was. Hair was made on the novel premise that the hippies weren't really alienated from America. They were an expression of it. Whether this was true for hippies themselves or not, it was true enough for other Americans to make Hair enormously successful. On the one hand, people came into New York from Connecticut, Connecticut to see the show because they also yearned to be FREE, somehow, and Hair assuaged those yearnings. On the other hand, Hair made freedom safe. It made it into entertainment. It made hippies appealing and familiar. In Hair, the commune and the crash pad and the demonstration in the streets became a new kind of togetherness, a renewed and ideal Melting Pot. The show...
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SOURCE: Benson, Sheila. "Ragtime—An Optimistic Novel Lost in Translation." Los Angeles Times (15 November 1981): Calendar section, p. 29.
[In the following review, Benson asserts that much of the depth of E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime is lost in its film adaptation.]
E. L. Doctorow's bold exhilarating novel Ragtime, his "real-world act," was a newsreel of America at a critical period, from 1902 until just the end of World War I when "the era of Ragtime had run out." America at that time combined innocence, optimism, energy and personal and social ambition at levels it would never reach again.
And in the book every character and virtually every detail was interdependent. Doctorow created three fictional family groups: a comfortable middle-class New Rochelle bunting and fireworks manufacturer's family called simply Father, Mother, their Little Boy and her Younger Brother; a Latvian-Jewish immigrant family in New York's Lower East Side, Tateh (meaning father) the silhouette maker, Mameh and the Little Girl, who sews in the garment district. And finally, a dignified black ragtime piano player, Coalhouse Walker Jr., his love Sarah, and their baby son.
Into the lives of these three families tumbled the stars and comets of the day. J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford, Freud and Houdini, "Red Emma" Goldman and teenage seductress Evelyn Nesbit,...
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SOURCE: Asahina, Robert. "Sorting Out the Film Glut." New Leader 65, no. 2 (25 January 1982): 21.
[In the following excerpt, Asahina criticizes Forman's directorial skills in Ragtime.]
When E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime was published a few years ago, there was much heavy-handed discussion of its fanciful mixture of fact and fiction. In retrospect, the controversy seems to have grossly exaggerated the seriousness of what actually is little more than an entertaining commercial novel with a distinctly cartoonish quality. The film adaptation, [Ragtime,] on the other hand, directed by Milos Foreman from a script by Michael Weller, exhibits precisely the pretentiousness the book was wrongly accused of, while lacking Doctorow's humor and inventiveness.
Part of the problem is time, or the dearth of it; like most novels, Ragtime contains much more than any film could cover. So some elements of the book's plot are neglected, and others are thoughtlessly retained. The subplot involving Emma Goldman, for instance, is discarded entirely, and the amazing career of Tateh (Mandy Patinkin) is presented in such a fragmented way that his progress from Lower East Side immigrant to Hollywood mogul is incomprehensible instead of incredible.
Simultaneously, Weller and Foreman waste an appalling amount of footage on the murder of Stanford White (Norman Mailer), probably...
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SOURCE: Thomson, David. "Redtime." Film Comment 18, no. 1 (January-February 1982): 11-16.
[In the following excerpt, Thomson argues against Ragtime's negative critical reception, asserting that the film is well adapted and masterfully directed.]
Milos Forman's film of Ragtime omits many delightful views and moments from the book. Why not? It is a film, and it has assets denied to the novel. It does not go to the North Pole with Peary and Father, or to the pyramids with J. P. Morgan. J. P.'s strawberry nose and his stomach rumblings about reincarnation are both dropped: apart from a "newsreel" flash, the film's Morgan is only the absent owner of a fatuous museum that looks like the tomb left by some earlier and erased civilization, or like the spacecraft from another planet, spreading unreality through Manhattan. There is no Emma Goldman in this movie, no opportunity for Emma to administer that politicizing massage to Evelyn Nesbit, or for Younger Brother to come so explosively out of his hiding place so that his "filamented spurts of jism" can settle on Evelyn "like falling ticker tape."
Emma was cast in Ragtime, her part played by Mariclare Costello, her scenes shot; but she is gone now, along with the regiments of history left out by even E. L. Doctorow (no Wyatt Earp, no Jack Johnson, no Sarah Bernhardt—all contracted for a Steve Allen...
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SOURCE: Simon, John. "Wrong-Note Rag." National Review 34, no. 2 (5 February 1982): 122-23.
[In the following excerpt, Simon asserts that Ragtime's unsuccessful transition from page to screen is due to the novel's diffuse storyline structure.]
For once I am in complete agreement with the majority of my colleagues: Ragtime, the movie, does not work, largely because one misses the kaleidoscopic construction of the Doctorow novel. Milos Forman, the director, and Michael Weller, the scenarist, chose what they felt to be the principal strands of this multifarious web: Evelyn Nesbit and the celebrated murder case; Coalhouse Walker Jr., the black musician with his fanatical and fatal quest for justice; Tateh, the impoverished Jewish immigrant who works himself up into a movie director; and the typical turn-of-the-century American family that gets itself embroiled with all of them.
Some of the many subplots and characters beyond these make all but subliminal appearances (e.g., Houdini), some ended up on the cutting-room floor (e.g., Emma Goldman), and quite a few (e.g., Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, Dreiser, Freud, Zapata) never even passed their screenplay test. So, instead of free-wheeling ragtime, we get a fugue, and a rather unbalanced one at that, with Coalhouse and his vendetta given top priority. A good deal of Doctorow's irreverent, ahistoric, but politically satiric...
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SOURCE: Benson, Sheila. "The Music of Mozart, the Magic of the Film Maker—That's Amadeus." Los Angeles Times (19 September 1984): 1, 6.
[In the following review, Benson compliments Forman's casting choices and attention to historical details in Amadeus.]
To be able to perceive genius, to luxuriate in its example, all the while knowing that one's own work would have to strain, to reach mediocrity is a pretty good working definition of hell on earth.
In Amadeus, Peter Shaffer's play, which he and director Milos Forman have turned into an enthralling film, [Amadeus,] the genius is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the "mediocrity" is Antonio Salieri—reigning success of the court of Emperor Joseph II of Austria in the late 18th Century—and the confrontation between the two is fatal.
The story is told in the framework of a memory by the very old Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), consigned to a madhouse after his attempted suicide. He has outlived. Mozart (Tom Hulce) by 32 years, and watched his own compositions wither in popularity during the time.
To the devout young Salieri, who had dedicated his very chastity to music as a boy, the even younger Mozart was his idol. For almost 20 years Salieri has listened, enraptured, to Mozart's extraordinary output, from the time the 6-year-old prodigy was trundled about by his father from court...
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SOURCE: Jacobson, Harlan. "As Many Notes as Required." Film Comment 20, no. 5 (September-October 1984): 50, 53-5.
[In the following essay, Jacobson explores the working relationship between Forman and Saul Zaentz, the producer of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.]
So long and so used to measuring the achievements of individual genius, we have built a culture devoted to it. Time tells us that we have begun trying to teach the fetus in the womb. In the most wanton and random of our acts, war, we single out a man here or there for a medal. And in between, we have this problem of the artist: is he an artist if he doesn't sell? When does the man in the businessman's suit become an artist—when the artist he produces fails?
So it is with all who live here, each wrestling with the dark angel of doubt. "Genius" has been debased, and "brilliance" is a cheat word used by critics and stolen by producers to sell the only mediocre people who are honest about it—the suckers born every minute—in the Sunday entertainment page ads. How abused are the terms of endearment common to our myth-making apparatus, the movies.
Producers do say "Loved your story," as do magazine editors, and "I'll get back to you on it." No producer wants to make a picture and lose money—even Monroe Stahr sensed he was no longer a producer, at that...
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SOURCE: Shaffer, Peter. "Making the Screen Speak." Film Comment 20, no. 5 (September-October 1984): 50-1, 56-7.
[In the following essay, Shaffer—the author of the play that Amadeus was based on—discusses his working relationship with Forman, describing the process of how they adapted the play into film.]
The cinema is a worrying medium for the stage playwright to work in. Its unverbal essence offers difficulties to anyone living largely by the spoken word. Increasingly, as American films grow ever more popular around the world, it is apparent that the most successful are being spoken in Screenspeak, a kind of cinematic esperanto equally comprehensible in Bogota and Bulawayo. For example, dialogue in heavy-action pictures, horrific or intergalactic, now consists almost entirely of the alternation of two single words—a cry and a whisper—needing translation nowhere on the planet: 'Lessgidowdaheer!' and 'Omygaad!' Mastery of this new tongue is not easy for older writers.
Equally dismaying has to be the endemic restlessness of filmgoers. In his mind's ear as he writes for the live theatre, the dramatist can presume the attentiveness of his audience: its mutual agreement to listen, and to remain in one place while the performance is going on. No such agreement exists among movie audiences. Indeed the very word 'movie' nowadays can as accurately...
(The entire section is 1913 words.)
SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. "Stanley Kauffmann on Films: Divertimento." New Republic 191, no. 173 (22 October 1984): 30-2.
[In the following review, Kauffmann argues that although Amadeus is an improvement over the original play, the film is still implausible and poorly acted.]
Lucky are those who see the film of Amadeus without having seen the play. Peter Shaffer's original was markedly different in the London and New York productions that I saw, but both of them used theatrical conceits as if they were virtuosity, when in fact they were padding for a thin body—tricks like an address to the audience and a stylized chorus. Shorn of this spurious decor, the film fares somewhat better.
Shaffer's screenplay, which was worked out with the director, Milos Forman, is a more straightforward narrative; it goes on too long and it heaves toward a dreadfully contrived climax, but in the main it's a visually lively piece that tells a story about Mozart and Salieri. Not the story: those familiar with Mozart's life may die the death of a thousand cuts unless they agree from the start to a romance. Still, that romance is presented here with much less of Shaffer's undergraduate playwriting cleverness, less tinselly rhetoric, and a lot of nice things to look at. With, of course, a great many bits of Mozart's music—bits only, yet ravishing, more than in the play and played...
(The entire section is 1352 words.)
SOURCE: Adair, Gilbert. "What's Opera, Doc?" Sight and Sound 54, no. 2 (spring 1985): 142-43.
[In the following review, Adair examines the relationship between Mozart and Salieri in Amadeus.]
In the beginning, probably, was the word; or name: Amadeus. Futile as it surely must be to speculate on the various mazy processes of free association rippling through an artist's consciousness when a project enters its formative stage, it might just be worth playing the game with Milos Forman's Amadeus—not only was creativity the subject of Peter Shaffer's play, it was a shortfall of creativity that constituted its own tragic flaw. Why, then, did Shaffer call it 'Amadeus,' instead of 'Mozart' or, like Rimsky's opera, Mozart and Salieri? Because the word's Latinate coda made it sound more like a 'title'? Because the us suffix rhymed it, intertextually, with Equus? Or, which seems likelier, because in it lurks deus, Latin for god; and even, were one to indulge in punnilingus, A mad deus and I am a deus? For Salieri, of course, Mozart represented, as it were, an Amadeus ex machina, the unwary object of what could be described as a sad case of unrequited hate. More to the point, however, a divine artist he clearly is for Shaffer who (in a scene exclusive to the film version, which has the dying Mozart dictate, in a febrile, rasping hum,...
(The entire section is 1173 words.)
SOURCE: O'Brien, Tom. "Bland and Better Than Bland." Commonweal 116, no. 21 (1 December 1989): 670-71.
[In the following excerpt, O'Brien argues that Valmont is more sensitive to the underlying humanity of its characters than Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons.]
First things first: Valmont is not a remake of Dangerous Liaisons. Generally, it tells the same story; tonally, it is a completely different, sometimes better, sometimes weaker film. Its source is not the Broadway play, but the original novel; on the other hand, the film's credits declare it is "loosely based" on Laclos's text. Its new flavor reflects the humanistic vision of the director, Milos Forman (twice a big winner at the Oscars with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus), who continues to persist in his faith that nothing human can be wholly vile.
Valmont takes Forman back to the age of Amadeus, pre-French revolutionary Europe; Mozart, conducted again by Neville Marriner, echoes gracefully in its Parisian salons. As in Liaisons, there are chateaux aplenty and a costume feast for the eyes. But Forman gets beneath the pretty surface by drawing in urban lowlife; he never sees through one prism only; one scene of a food-buying spree in an open-air market is an astonishingly fresh, vibrant vision of old-world customs. The film ends in a wedding attended by the...
(The entire section is 744 words.)
SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. "Worlds Apart." New Republic 201, no. 24 (11 December 1989): 24-5, 28.
[In the following excerpt, Kauffmann compares Valmont to Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, arguing that Valmont is the weaker of the two films.]
In less than a year since Dangerous Liaisons comes another film made from the Laclos novel. This one is called Valmont (Orion), after the leading male character; was directed by Milos Forman, whose last work was Amadeus; and was adapted from Laclos by Jean-Claude Carrière (with, uncredited, Forman). Carrière has had one of the most active of screenwriting careers since he began in 1961, a career especially famous for his many collaborations with Luis Buñuel and especially blotted by his collaboration with Peter Brook on the atrocious Swann in Love.
Here Carrière falters again. Valmont is called a free adaptation of Laclos. This is like calling Riunite a free adaptation of Mouton Rothschild. The time and milieu are unchanged in the film—late 18th century, French aristocrats—and so are some of the events. But there are radical alterations. I mention only two. Madame de Tourvel, the virtuous young wife who is seduced by Valmont solely because he has bet that he can do it, does not go mad and die: she is forgiven by her husband. Cécile, the virgin whom Valmont seduces en route to...
(The entire section is 641 words.)
SOURCE: Billson, Anne. "More Laclos Than La Close." New Statesman and Society 4, no. 178 (22 November 1991): 40-1.
[In the following review, Billson compliments Forman's casting choices in Valmont, describing the film as more plausible and enjoyable than Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons.]
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos is my own personal Bonfire of the Vanities. Given it to read at an impressionable age, I promptly concluded that "la Marquise de Merteuil, c'est moi," and went on to develop that obsessive possessiveness reserved for one's favourite works of fiction. None shall touch! And if they must touch, they'd better bloody well get it right.
So if Bonfire fans were peeved at the casting of Tom Hanks as a Master of the Universe, imagine my chagrin when I saw Dangerous Liaisons. I am sorry, but I am not Glenn Close. I am prepared to admit she can sometimes appear quite handsome in a backwoodsy, frecklesome, big-boned sort of way, but an elegant, seductive, 18th-century French aristocrat she is definitely not.
I also had problems with the performances of John Malkovich (too much prancing and leering) and Michelle Pfeiffer (too gooey and cute). Not the least of my objections was that we were asked to believe that the sort of lecherous bozo Malky was playing would dump Michelle in return...
(The entire section is 894 words.)
SOURCE: Bowie, Malcolm. "Rites of Passage Romp." Times Literary Supplement, no. 4626 (29 November 1991): 21.
[In the following review, Bowie asserts that although Valmont is visually stunning, the film is ultimately a sterile adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses.]
What will Milos Forman do next?, cinema-goers were entitled to ask themselves during the long years of silence that followed Amadeus. Forman's career had been Protean, after all, and the gulf between, say, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Shaffer adaptation was perhaps even more remarkable than the caesura that the Soviet tanks had inserted between his early Czech-language films and the later English series. The surprise with Valmont, based on Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses and now released in Britain after a delay of two years, is that there is no surprise: hard on the heels of one big-budget costume drama with a late eighteenth-century setting comes another of the same kind, sleekly photographed and awash with expensive local colour. Amadeus offered a prophetic glimpse of the commodified and designerized Mozart that the current bicentennial celebrations have brought into being, and one might have expected Forman himself to have put the lid back on his pomade-jar by now and returned his flounces and farthingales to the wardrobe. But no: even more than its predecessor, this is a film...
(The entire section is 988 words.)
SOURCE: MacDonald, George B. "Control by Camera: Milos Forman as Subjective Narrator." In A Casebook on Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, edited by George J. Searles, pp. 163-72. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
[In the following essay, MacDonald analyzes the intent and effect of the subjective camera technique that Forman employs in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, highlighting Forman's use of color and point-of-view.]
The film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is that rare adaptation which balances a respect for its literary source with a rich contribution of cinematic meanings. [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest] establishes Czech director Milos Forman as a major director in contemporary American filmmaking.
Forman's role reaches far beyond the shaping of the actors' performances. It extends into the entire visual design and the literary structure of the film. Forman insisted that the film not be told from the first-person point of view of Bromden, for he wanted no single character's viewpoint to dominate in his adaptation. Partly as a result of Forman's intransigence in this matter, Kesey disassociated himself from the production, and two other writers, with Forman's help, wrote the final scenario.
Forman's elimination of the first-person viewpoint places McMurphy and Nurse Ratched outside the subjective...
(The entire section is 3911 words.)
SOURCE: Hislop, Andrew. "The Cuckoo Clocked." Times Literary Supplement, no. 4775 (7 October 1994): 26.
[In the following review of Turnaround, Hislop underscores the recurring theme of betrayal in Forman's life and body of work.]
Off-screen at least, betrayal in Hollywood has all the sinfulness of a quick costume change—it's just business. "Turnaround" is a Hollywood term for a shift in loyalty, when a project is transferred from one studio to another, but, for Milos Forman, betrayal is no casual business. Its moral consequences and historical nuances permeate this subtle, witty autobiography, written with the Czech novelist Jan Novak, as it does his films. Forman, now a patriotic American, has directed two of the most Oscar-blessed films in Hollywood's history—One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (betrayal of human spirit and trust in a mental institution) and Amadeus (Salieri's betrayal of Mozart). The emotional and literary force of Turnaround, however, is not in its later amusing American film anecdotes but in Forman's Czechoslovakian recollections, as a child under Nazi occupation, then as a struggling filmmaker under Communist rule. There, Forman experienced betrayal to trump the melodrama of any on-screen Hollywood treachery.
Both of Forman's parents died in concentration camps after being betrayed by a member of the Gestapo who, before the...
(The entire section is 1174 words.)
SOURCE: Forman, Milos, and Richard Porton. "Porn Again: The People vs. Larry Flynt." Cineaste 22, no. 4 (fall 1996): 28-32.
[In the following interview, Forman discusses his views on censorship and his film The People vs. Larry Flynt.]
The controversy inspired by Milos Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt has focused attention on America's most notorious pornographer and Hustler magazine's virulent misogyny. Unfortunately, this ongoing debate has yielded considerably more heat than political or moral illumination. Distinctions between Hustler's frequently vile brand of porn, First-Amendment issues, and Flynt's personal life have become hopelessly blurred. Gloria Steinem, for example, points out that Hustler's fondness for simulated rape and torture—a truly peculiar notion of erotica—is unquestionably degrading to women. Yet her understandable impatience with attempts to brand Flynt a "free speech hero" does not negate the fact that the smut peddler's censorship battles have, however unwittingly, helped to safeguard the rights of his opponents, whether antipornography feminists or right-wing fundamentalists.
From an equally problematic perspective, Laura Kipnis (a Marxist as well as a feminist), hailed Hustler as the most class-conscious mass circulation publication in the United States and expressed a surprising admiration for its...
(The entire section is 5284 words.)
SOURCE: Freund, Charles Paul. "Market Culture: Bashed and Unabashed." Reason 28, no. 8 (January 1997): 54.
[In the following essay, Freund examines the issues of capitalism and left-wing vs. right-wing politics in response to The People vs. Larry Flynt.]
Quick: Name an icon of "capitalism at its most unabashed." Who'd you come up with? Somebody like Bill Gates from the exploding information economy? A Daddy Warbucks from Wall Street? Some old-time, public-be-damned robber baron?
The correct answer—at least the one given by The New York Times—is pornographer Larry Flynt. [He is] portrayed by Woody Harrelson in Milos Forman's movie, The People vs. Larry Flynt. The Times reviewed the film when it played the New York Film Festival, praising the characterization of Flynt as "a maverick vulgarian who embodies capitalism at its most unabashed."
Critic Janet Maslin thought the film's opening sequence particularly good: It shows the young Flynt, then a Kentucky moonshiner, selling whiskey to a helpless old drunk in exchange for his last two bucks. "It's free enterprise even if it isn't pretty," she wrote. Pornography and the ruin of drunks; that pretty much sums up capitalism, unless you want to include genocide.
And The Times did. Frank Rich, the paper's former drama critic and now a columnist, applauded the...
(The entire section is 1084 words.)
SOURCE: Holmstrom, David. "Director Defends The People vs. Larry Flynt." Christian Science Monitor (12 February 1997): 57.
[In the following essay, Holmstrom discusses Forman's response to the negative critical reaction to The People vs. Larry Flynt.]
Milos Forman already won the Golden Globe Award as best director for his controversial new movie, The People vs. Larry Flynt. And just yesterday, he also earned an Oscar nomination for the same film. Entertainment Weekly magazine predicts Mr. Forman is a "shoo-in" for the Academy Award.
But Forman, honored twice before with Oscars (best director for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and Amadeus in 1984) is upset about the attacks around the country over the content of his newest film. Since its release late last year, the movie has been heavily criticized by feminists for falsely portraying Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, as only a mildly offensive pornography "rogue," who champions free speech.
Writer Gloria Steinem and others have said that the film sanitizes Mr. Flynt and leaves out any mention of the magazine's well-known "images of women being beaten, tortured, and raped, women subject to degradations from bestiality to sexual slavery." They ask, why should a man who publishes images of violently abused women be treated like a star, as...
(The entire section is 871 words.)
SOURCE: Bruzzi, Stella. Review of The People vs. Larry Flynt, by Milos Forman. Sight and Sound 7, no. 3 (March 1997): 58-9.
[In the following review, Bruzzi argues that Forman glosses over the darker side of Larry Flynt's persona in The People vs. Larry Flynt, therefore lessening the importance of Flynt's First Amendment battles with the U.S. Supreme Court.]
Kentucky, 1952. Two boys, one of them Larry Flynt, manufacture and sell moonshine liquor. Twenty years later, Larry is running the Hustler go-go club, where he meets Althea Leasure, a dancer he later marries, after the Hustler 'newsletter' has become a commercial porn magazine and made him a millionaire. In 1972 Larry is arrested on charges of pandering obscenity and organised crime, and is defended by Alan Isaacman, who represents him in all his courtroom battles.
At his first trial, Larry is found guilty and sentenced to 25 years, but is cleared five months later. Under the persuasion of Ruth Carter Stapleton, President Jimmy Carter's sister, he undergoes a religious conversion and is baptised, only to be arrested again in 1978 for selling Hustler. Outside the Georgia courthouse, Larry and Isaacman are shot, Larry remaining paralysed from the waist down and renouncing his Christianity. He and Althea move to Hollywood where, between 1979 and 1983, they abandon the running of the magazine and descend...
(The entire section is 1168 words.)
SOURCE: Newey, Adam. "Trials of the Smut-Pedlar Who Cared." Times Literary Supplement, no. 4907 (18 April 1997): 18.
[In the following review, Newey questions the reality behind Forman's "softening" of Larry Flynt's character in The People vs. Larry Flynt.]
From the opening credits of The People vs Larry Flynt, it is clear that the real hero of this film is the American flag. The stars and stripes form a near-constant backdrop to Milos Forman's biopic of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, the king of blue-collar porn; the New York Times has even described the film as "the most patriotic movie of the year."
Forman's aims are straightforward enough. By painting his film in red, white and blue, he hopes to rehabilitate Flynt as an all-American hero and to replenish America's faith in the values enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. This is no easy task, because, even by Hollywood's standards, Flynt's life has been a bizarre one. After establishing a small string of strip joints in the Midwest in the early 1970s, he began publishing the Hustler Newsletter as a way of increasing the clubs' clientele, but soon realized there was a huge gap in the magazine market. By avowedly catering for a readership that found Playboy too challenging, Flynt amassed a fortune with Hustler magazine and became one of America's most reviled...
(The entire section is 746 words.)
SOURCE: Fuller, Kathryn H. Review of The People vs. Larry Flynt, by Milos Forman. Journal of American History 84, no. 3 (December 1997): 1185-86.
[In the following review, Fuller analyzes the public reaction to The People vs. Larry Flynt and expresses surprise that the majority of debate came from liberal and feminist groups.]
The People vs. Larry Flynt is a recent addition to the surprisingly small store of Hollywood films dealing with censorship, freedom of speech, and First Amendment controversies. Previous films featured likable, unassuming, Everyman protagonists such as Edward G. Robinson's journalist in Dispatch from Reuter's (1940), Henry Fonda's college professor in The Male Animal (1942), Bette Davis's librarian in Storm Center (1956), Spencer Tracy's lawyer in Inherit the Wind (1960), and Woody Allen's screenwriter in The Front (1976). In dramatic courtroom and lecture hall confrontations, the heroes rise above community approbation to uphold free speech and democracy. The flag-waving finales reassured moviegoers of the triumph of the American way.
The iconoclastic Everyman that viewers are asked to cheer in The People vs. Larry Flynt is the boorish, crude publisher of Hustler and other pornographic magazines and the defendant in a famous First Amendment case heard before the Supreme Court in 1987-1988,...
(The entire section is 1041 words.)
SOURCE: Rapf, Joanna E. "Volatile Forms: The Transgressive Energy of Ragtime as a Novel and Film." Literature-Film Quarterly 26, no. 1 (January 1998): 16-22.
[In the following essay, Rapf explores the dynamics of the novel Ragtime and examines the elements that were lost and retained in its film adaptation.]
Father kept himself under control by writing in his journal. This was a system too, the system of language and conceptualization. It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than the time and place they were living through.
—E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime
E. L. Doctorow's novel, Ragtime, is certainly about "making witness." Its serpentine structure, drifting from one subject and one point-of-view to another, with its allusive narrator who seems by the end to be a little boy reflecting on the past of his youth, is about the creation and re-creation of history, a discipline, Doctorow seems to suggest, that is itself about making order out of disorder, about "control." While he is in the Arctic, Father "kept himself under control by writing in his journal." This process of ordering, of fixing, is crucial in Doctorow's work. Ragtime is all about things going out of control as the nineteenth century marches into the...
(The entire section is 4438 words.)
SOURCE: Sterritt, David. Review of Man on the Moon, by Milos Forman. Cineaste 25, no. 2 (spring 2000): 52.
[In the following review, Sterritt dismisses the negative critical response to Man on the Moon, arguing that the film is both thought-provoking and mischievous.]
Man on the Moon joined the list of 1999's most misunderstood movies within hours of its first press screenings, as assorted critics started complaining they'd been cheated of the Andy Kaufman biopic they'd apparently come to see. The film's lukewarm box-office reception probably had a similar cause, abetted by lingering memories of Kaufman's actual career, which still conjures up extremely mixed vibes in the popular imagination. Universal Pictures didn't help, promoting the movie with publicity stunts designed to merge Jim Carrey's star power with Kaufman's own persona—a peculiar decision, considering Kaufman's rocky relationship with the public, not to mention the fact that Carrey's younger devotees aren't likely to have much awareness of Kaufman beyond Taxi reruns on late-night television. Nor did Universal give Man on the Moon an effective launch on the film-festival circuit. This was an obvious option, given the auteur eminence of director Milos Forman and the precedent of his previous picture, The People vs. Larry Flynt, opening the New York film-fest in 1997. But the studio apparently feared...
(The entire section is 1514 words.)
SOURCE: Felperin, Leslie. Review of Man on the Moon, by Milos Forman. Sight and Sound 10, no. 4 (April 2000): 58.
[In the following excerpt, Felperin asserts that Man on the Moon neither explains nor justifies Andy Kaufman's life and career.]
Clearly, if you're going to spend $52 million making a movie about a now-obscure comedian from the 70s, you have to believe his life is extraordinary in some way. (It's probably rule number one in the textbook for film-school courses called Advanced Screenwriting: Biopics.) Indeed on paper, Andy Kaufman's life story sounds thrillingly unlikely. Here's an introverted situationist manqué who rose to fame and fortune by singing along to the theme tune from Mighty Mouse, pretending to be a inept refugee and physically assaulting people. As every good biopic protagonist should, he duly died tragically young, of lung cancer at the age of 36. (Allegedly he didn't even smoke, which is in itself pretty funny.)
The problem is that while Kaufman's life story has its required quota of bizarre-yet-true events, it's doomed to failure as mainstream entertainment because Kaufman wasn't terribly likeable as a person. More importantly, he was the master of a comedy style that, as his agent George in the film tells him, is "only funny to two people in the universe." He means Kaufman and his partner Bob Zmuda, although we...
(The entire section is 712 words.)
SOURCE: Romney, Jonathan. "Out of this World." New Statesman 129, no. 4485 (8 May 2000): 41-2.
[In the following review, Romney applauds Forman's casting choices in Man on the Moon, but finds that the film offers no further insight into Andy Kaufman's life.]
To American audiences in the 1970s and 1980s, the comedian Andy Kaufman was a legendary figure whose confrontational routines turned show-business conventions upside down. In Britain, where he was known mainly as the ingratiatingly kooky Latka in the TV sitcom Taxi, Milos Forman's biopic Man on the Moon won't mean quite so much. There's an uncomfortable sense of "you had to be there": we must take it on trust that Kaufman was a media revolutionary, a pop situationist and a performance artist who used prime-time TV as his medium.
Nevertheless, Kaufman's career remains startling, however accustomed we are today to the wind-up strategies of a Chris Morris. Despite his success in Taxi, Kaufman professed to despise the sitcom itself and showbiz in general; yet he claimed to be a song-and-dance man at heart. He courted affection and loathing in equal measures, finally baiting his audience so thoroughly that he short-circuited his career almost entirely. On the one hand, he would play a childlike clown lip-syncing to the Mighty Mouse theme song; on the other, he spouted outrageous macho rhetoric...
(The entire section is 925 words.)
Further Reading
Berlins, Marcel. Review of The People vs. Larry Flynt, by Milos Forman. New Statesman 126, no. 4328 (4 April 1997): 36-7.
Berlins discusses the significance of and depiction of Larry Flynt's legal battles in The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Boylan, James. Review of The People vs. Larry Flynt, by Milos Forman. Columbia Journalism Review 35, no. 5 (January-February 1997): 15.
Boylan praises The People vs. Larry Flynt as an important film about free speech.
Brudnoy, David. "Iris' Head, Eric's Knee, Milos' Gap." National Review 23, no. 29 (27 July 1971): 822-23.
Brudnoy attributes the awkwardness of Taking Off to Forman's unfamiliarity with American sensibilities.
Clouzot, Claire. Review of Loves of a Blonde, by Milos Forman. Film Quarterly 21, no. 1 (fall 1967): 47-8.
Clouzot applauds the beauty of Loves of a Blonde, attributing it to Forman's ability to capture the humor and humanity in everyday situations.
Coe, Jonathan. Review of The People vs. Larry Flynt, by Milos Forman. New Statesman 126, no. 4329 (11 April 1997): 40-1.
Coe compliments Forman's directing and casting choices in The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Craft, Robert....
(The entire section is 428 words.)
Source: Contemporary Literary Criticism, ©2003 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.


text:
I was honored when Mr. Mike Ledoux took time to sit with me at the Live Free or Die Convention a few weeks back, and I will say this; I am a better artist because of the time that was spent with this man.
We all may have a familiar sounding story; Mike copied a dragon out of the wonderful pages of Dungeons and Dragons when he was in fourth grade. He didn't trace it, he copied it. And it was awesome. He showed everyone he could and it was met with rave reviews. Some people are just born with it they say. He is one of the "some". Now that's not to say he didn't put a lot of heart and soul into his drawing career by any means. He put so much into it in fact that he became an art teacher!
When you start your scholastic career in becoming a teacher of arts you get many different art backgrounds, all of which Mike feels made him a better tattoo artist down the road. Even his sculpting class, in hindsight, brought a different level of depth to his pieces that would not be there otherwise. And it gave him a different edge when he finally picked up a machine.
Yeah, he didn't start tattooing until about 9 years ago and even then he did it for some extra cash. He was and is a middle/high school art teacher and as we've seen in this country of late, teachers are getting a pretty short stick. So tattooing seemed like a natural thing. He never really thought about it before but he took to it well. And it's a good thing he started because he now works for one of the finest shops in the land.
PowerLine Tattoo in Cranston Rhode Island. I've seen them in action at conventions and the trophies build up quickly on their table. With the support of Evan Olin (shop owner and tattoo magician in his own right), Jay Blackburn, Jessica Brennan and Shane Baker, Mike has become better than ever and owes it to the PowerLine family.
Although he has only been with them for about a year and half, the openness of the shop and the communication between artists flows like water. There are no "secrets" here. If one figures out a new technique, everyone will know it by the end of the day. And because of that interaction they have formed an award winning shop with no end in sight.
The best quote I've heard in my existence is this, "I love being the worst artist at Powerline Tattoo." Who says that?! Someone who never wants to stop learning that's who. The competitions he makes for himself make him strive and work that much harder to obtain his goals. I think with an outlook like Mikes you can't help but become something bigger than you already are.
So now the nuts, Mike uses Next Gen Orion Full Coil Shaders, Soba Mini Rusto Liners (although he does admit that the Hyper V3 from Stigma Rotary's is pretty bad ass) and ink wise he sticks with good ole Eternal.
Please stop by PowerLine Tattoo if you're ever in the Cranston area or check them out at http://www.powerlinetattoo.com/
They would love to meet you and create a piece of art that you will absolutely cherish for the rest of existence.


text:
The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work--A Harvard Business Press Book Summary in Partnership with getAbstract
Cathleen Benko, Molly Anderson
Publication Date:Aug 03, 2010Discipline:General Management |
Product number:9805ES-PDF-ENG Length:5p |
English PDF
English PDF | $ 6.93
Rooted in the industrial era, the corporate ladder takes an outdated, one-size-fits-all view of work. In the ladder world, work is where you go from 9 to 5. Success means a bigger title, office, and paycheck, plus more power and prestige. Today's world is different, explain Deloitte vice chairman Cathleen Benko and talent director Molly Anderson. Globalization and technology are creating firms with fewer rungs and more options for how, when, and where to work. Employees are also profoundly different. From gender to generations, they are more diverse. Workers' needs and expectations don't match those of the former homogeneous workforce. The ladder is collapsing. The "corporate lattice" is emerging. The more flexible lattice model aligns better with the new world of work by allowing more options, careers that zig and zag, work that can be done many ways, and good ideas that can come from anyone, anywhere, anytime.
learning objective:
In this Abstract, you will learn: 1) Why the "corporate lattice" is replacing the traditional corporate ladder; 2) How "lattice ways" mark this shift; and 3) How the lattice applies to employers and employees.
subjects covered:
Career advancement; Managing employees; Organizational structure; Talent management